Depression is described as feeling of low mood, sad, blue, miserable, with unwillingness to doing normal day activities. This feeling occurs in most of use some times but some people feel this way all the time. This is called clinical depression or major depressive disorder (MDD) and is a mood disorder that persist for a longer time.

Symptoms

Besides feeling sad, empty and without a purpose, other typical symptoms that patients experience are:

– difficulty concentrating
– decreased energy
– feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and/or helplessness
– feelings of hopelessness and/or pessimism
– irritability
– loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable
– overeating or appetite loss
– attempt or commit suicide or suicidal thoughts
– insomnia or excessive sleeping
– fatigue
– aches and pains
– digestive problems
– reduced energy

Causes

Depression can be caused by some traumatic life events or other diseases.
In clinical depression there seems to be a strong genetic origin manly due to abnoramilities in the chemicals in patients brains. A big player in this is serotonin and specifically serotonin transporter proteins.

The encocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a critical role in the regulation the body’s stress response with deficient endocannabinoid levels (2-AG in the brain) being associated with anxiety behaviours and depression, while elevated levels of endocannabinoids are associated with reduced anxiety and stress. A recent study done on mice, has shown that by elevating the concentrations of this endocannabinoid, by decreasing the levels of the enzyme that breaks it down, diacylglycerol lipase α (DAGLα), significantly reduced anxiety and depressive-like behaviours in these subjects.

Anxiety, Stress, and Fear Response in Mice with Reduced Endocannabinoid Levels.
Blockade of 2-arachidonoylglycerol hydrolysis produces antidepressant-like effects and enhances adult hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity

Treatment

As the ECS plays a big role in this disorder, patients should give the body all the necessary compounds to make this system work efficiently. This can be done by adding omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the right ratios. This can be achieved by taking one to two big spoons of hemp seed oil every day at an empty stomach.

The second thing that has shown great results are acidic cannabinoids. These can be taken as extracts from the flowers of cannabis, that have not been decraboxylated (cold extraction process), or by juicing cannabis flowers and making raw juice smoothies.

The neutral cannabinoids cannabigerol (CBG),  cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabichromene (CBC) all have anti-depressant effects. Also some terpens found in cannabis such as cineolo, linalool and limonene have also the same effects on mood.

Patients should choose strains high in CBD, CBG, CBC, cineolo, linalool and limonene. The best way to test the efficacy of a strain on the symptoms is by use of a vaporiser as the quantity can be easily titrated and the effects are quickly felt. The standard method used is to take one inhalation, wait for 5 minutes to see the effects and then take another one. This method ensures you will not get adverse effects and you can stop whenever you feel its enough.