“A majority of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) will develop lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) during the course of the disease…
Cannabis extracts have shown some promise but has still not gained wide acceptance…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24954496
http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/multiple-sclerosis-ms/
“Marijuana is often used as compassion add-on therapy for treatment-resistant PTSD.
This open-label study evaluates the tolerance and safety of orally absorbable Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) for chronic PTSD.
There were mild adverse effects in three patients, none of which led to treatment discontinuation. The intervention caused a statistically significant improvement in global symptom severity, sleep quality, frequency of nightmares, and PTSD hyperarousal symptoms.
Orally absorbable Δ9-THC was safe and well tolerated by patients with chronic PTSD.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24935052
http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/
“Researchers have discovered that cannibinoids offer a novel approach to ease the chronic and acute pain caused by sickle cell disease.
“This paper provides proof that we can use other classifications of drugs to treat pain in patients with sickle cell disease,” Gupta said.
“Cannibinoids offer great promise in the treatment of chronic and acute pain, and they’re effective in much lower amounts than opioids — the only currently approved treatment for this disease.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722121225.htm
“Cannabinoid-Based Therapy and Approaches to Quantify Pain in Sickle Cell Disease.
Our primary objective is to assess whether inhaling vaporized cannabis ameliorates chronic pain in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). As these patients will all be on chronic opioid analgesics, the investigators will also assess the possible synergistic affect between inhaled cannabis and opioids.
The investigators will also assess the clinical safety of the concomitant use of cannabinoids and these opioids in patients with SCD by monitoring the short-term side effects associated with combined therapy.
Finally, the investigators will evaluate the short-term effects of inhaled cannabis on markers of inflammation and disease progression in patients with SCD.
Hypotheses are as follows:
This is a proof-of-principle investigation of the safety and potential effectiveness of inhaled vaporized cannabis when added to a stable analgesic regimen in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients with chronic pain. The study will be comprised of two 5-day intervention periods in the inpatient setting (the Clinical Research Center at SFGH), with completion of a 5-day daily pain diary prior to admission to establish an outpatient baseline. Participants will be randomly assigned, in double-blind fashion, to treatment with (A) vaporized cannabis with an approximately 1:1 ration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol:cannabidiol or (B) vaporized placebo. Those who receive treatment A during the first admission will receive treatment B in the second, and those who receive treatment B during the first admission will receive treatment A in the second. The two admissions will be spaced at least 14 days apart.
On Day 1 of each admission, subjects will provide blood samples for baseline markers of inflammation and SCD disease progression. They will undergo assessments of pain, mood, and quality of life. At 12 pm on Day 1, they will inhale vaporized study agent (equivalent to 1 cannabis/placebo cigarette) using the Volcano® vaporizer; on Days 2-4 they will inhale study agent at 8 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm, and they will inhale their final dose on Day 5 at 8 am. Subjects will continue their pre-study analgesic regimen while in the study. If additional analgesia is required, supplemental therapy will be administered and the dose recorded. Pain measurements by visual analogue scale will be obtained every 2 hours while subjects are awake. On Day 5 a second set of blood samples for inflammation markers and disease progression will be obtained, and subjects will again complete pain, mood, and quality of life assessments.”
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT01771731#contacts
“Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in pot offer a new way to treat chronic and acute pain from sickle cell disease, ScienceDaily reports.
Currently the only treatment for the blood disease is opiods.
“Pain in SCD is described to be more intense than labor pain. The pain starts early in a patient’s life, often during infancy, and increases in severity with age.
[Cannibinoids are] effective in much lower amounts than opioids — the only currently approved treatment for this disease.”
“Can Medical Cannabis Help to Cure SCD?”
“Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary condition caused by a mutation in the haemoglobin gene, which leads to symptoms of anaemia, extreme pain, and organ damage if unmanaged.”
“Individuals suffering from SCD are far more likely to use cannabis than the general population, potentially for its analgesic properties.
In 2010, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that the synthetic THC analogue CP 55,940 was as effective as morphine sulphate in treating SCD-related severe pain in transgenic mice expressing human sickle haemoglobin, and that it was effective at smaller doses than the opioid.
In 2011, a further paper submitted by the same researchers to Blood (the Journal of the American Association of Hematology) indicated that CP 55,940 ameliorated severe pain associated with the hypoxia/reoxygenation cycle. CP 55,940 is a full agonist of both CB receptors, and is thought to act as an antagonist at the GPR55 receptor.
As well as this, cannabis has been repeatedly shown to act as a vasodilator, which could in itself assist in easing the blockages caused by build-up of sickle cells…
SCD is a painful and debilitating disease, and the overall inefficacy of opioid treatments and resultant poor quality of life for many sufferers is an indication that our approach to it is far from perfect.
If cannabis is a good candidate to replace opioids, it should be implemented forthwith to prevent ongoing suffering for existing patients.”
http://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/sickle-cell-pain-may-managed-cannabis/
“People who suffer from sickle cell disease have to deal with a lot of pain.
Patients with sickle cell disease have crescent shaped blood cells, compared to disc shaped blood cells in people who don’t suffer from sickle cell disease. These cells block blood flow, which causes pain, fatigue, and organ damage. I’ve heard people that suffer from sickle cell disease describe the pain as being like nails poking their entire body.
Doctors usually prescribe opiate based pain killers like morphine for sickle cell disease. Opiate prescriptions have a lot of side effects including respiratory issues, damage to organs, and addiction to name a few. Compare that to medical marijuana, which has far less harmful side effects, especially if consumed in food or vapor form. Patients should have the option to choose medical marijuana if they want to. From Minnesota Daily:
School of Dentistry professor and pain expert Donald Simone, who is also working on the research project, said opiates sometimes have “problematic” side effects, such as respiratory depression. And Gupta said patients sometimes receive incorrect dosages of the drugs because their exact amount of pain is unknown.
Medical marijuana is promising for sickle cell patients because it has a pain-relieving effect without as many severe side effects as morphine, Simone said.
Right now researchers in California are teaming up with researchers at the University of Minnesota to find out how medical marijuana can help those suffering from sickle cell disease. Right now, sickle cell patients can get safe access to medical marijuana if they are in California. However, patients in Minnesota will have to wait until the condition is added to the list of approvable conditions in Minnesota, which could take awhile.”
http://www.theweedblog.com/medical-marijuana-could-help-treat-sickle-cell-disease/
“A group of University of Minnesota researchers is testing to see if medical marijuana can help treat chronic pain caused by sickle cell disease, but state and federal laws are putting a hitch in their study.
As researchers continue with the study’s next step — conducting human trials — they’re heading to California, as Minnesota doesn’t easily allow testing cannabis on people. The state’s recently passed medical marijuana law doesn’t include sickle cell disease as a qualifying medical condition, but the University’s current research could play a role in how that law changes in the future.
“We find that cannabinoids have good outcomes in treating pain [in mice with sickle cell disease],” said chief researcher and associate professor of medicine Kalpna Gupta.
Gupta said the researchers are now ready to expand their study to patients. And in doing so, they will move to California, where medical marijuana became legal nearly two decades ago. Minnesota’s stricter version of that law will take effect next summer.
Right now, the Minnesota Department of Health is working to appoint members to a task force that will oversee medical cannabis therapeutic research in the coming months. The department is also fine-tuning the rules that outline patient access and qualifications.
Qualifying health conditions to receive medical cannabis in the Minnesota law include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and seizures. Patients also qualify for the drug if they have chronic pain caused by cancer or a terminal illness.
Department of Health spokesman Mike Schommer said symptoms of sickle cell disease could potentially be added to the list of medical conditions in the future.
The main symptoms of sickle cell disease are fatigue and pain, and according to the state’s law, the commissioner of health may eventually add intractable pain to the list of qualifying medical conditions, making patients of sickle cell disease included.
Sickle cell patients have crescent-shaped blood cells instead of healthy, disc-shaped ones. Sickle cells block blood flow and cause pain and organ damage, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Former University student Brianna Wilson has sickle cell anemia that gives her bone and muscle pain.
“Some people describe it as nails poking you, but for me, it’s pressure in my veins and upper body,” she said.
Physicians usually prescribe opiates, like morphine, to treat the pain, but researchers and patients agree that there are better ways to treat the disease. Wilson said the drugs are addictive and usually don’t offer good results.
School of Dentistry professor and pain expert Donald Simone, who is also working on the research project, said opiates sometimes have “problematic” side effects, such as respiratory depression. And Gupta said patients sometimes receive incorrect dosages of the drugs because their exact amount of pain is unknown.
Developing a means to measure the severe pain could be useful for doctors while making prescriptions, said biomedical engineering professor Bin He, another researcher who is involved in the project.
Medical marijuana is promising for sickle cell patients because it has a pain-relieving effect without as many severe side effects as morphine, Simone said.
The National Institutes of Health awarded the researchers $9.5 million in January to pursue studies on mice and patients. With that money, the research is expanding to California to test the effects of vaporized cannabis on 35 sickle cell disease patients beginning in July.
So far, the researchers’ study has found that mice with sickle cell disease are more sensitive to pain, especially when experiencing pressure, heat or cold, Simone said. By examining how neurons in the peripheral nerves and the spinal cord become overactive, the researchers are able to identify new ways to reduce pain, he said.
University of California-San Francisco professor Donald Abrams, who will lead the clinical trials in partnership with the Minnesota researchers, said there were many “hoops to jump through” in going forward with the study, like gaining approval from numerous government agencies.
Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana programs, all varying in levels of strictness.
Minnesota’s law is among the nation’s strictest, and it prohibits patients from smoking or growing their own marijuana plants. The law mandates that two manufacturers operate four distribution centers each and that medical marijuana identification cards be available beginning July 2015 through a state-monitored registry.
“I can see [medical marijuana] helping,” Wilson said. “It’s chronic pain, so it should help, especially if it’s relaxing the muscles and things like that.””
“The very existence of cannabis as a substance with possible medical use is a contentious topic, to say the least. Its status as an illicit substance is hotly debated, with proponents from both sides (for and against legalization) engaged in a decades-long battle.
The status of marijuana in the United States as a Schedule I Substance under the Controlled Substances Act means not only that it is highly illegal to possess, but it is classified along the likes of cocaine, heroine, and crystal meth.
Schedule I substances are those that a) have high potential to be abused; b) have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States; and c) are lacking in accepted safety in use under medical supervision.
All of these qualifiers are potentially important in classifying drugs and substances, but many people argue that marijuana does not belong in Schedule I…
Pain after surgery remains a problem in the medical community, and traditional prescribed painkillers often have unpleasant side effects as well as diminishing benefits.
Cannabis extracts work due to the cannabinoid receptors in the human brain.
Cannabinoids from marijuana help to effectively strengthen the body’s ability to reduce pain sensation.”
http://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-cannabis-very-effective-as-painkiller-after-a-major-sugery–n55
“Cannabis-based medications have been demonstrated to relieve pain.
Cannabis medications can be used in patients whose symptoms are not adequately alleviated by conventional treatment.
The clinical effect of the various cannabis-based medications rests primarily on activation of endogenous cannabinoid receptors.
Consumption of therapeutic amounts by adults does not lead to irreversible cognitive impairment.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120807101232.htm