“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder of significant prevalence and morbidity, whose pathogenesis relies on paradoxical changes of emotional memory processing. An ideal treatment would be a drug able to block the pathological over-consolidation and continuous retrieval of the traumatic event, while enhancing its extinction and reducing the anxiety symptoms. While the latter benefit from antidepressant medications, no drug is available to control the cognitive symptomatology. Endocannabinoids regulate affective states and participate in memory consolidation, retrieval, and extinction. Clinical findings showing a relationship between Cannabis use and PTSD, as well as changes in endocannabinoid activity in PTSD patients, further suggest the existence of a link between endocannabinoids and maladaptive brain changes after trauma exposure. Along these lines, we suggest that endocannabinoid degradation inhibitors may be an ideal therapeutic approach to simultaneously treat the emotional and cognitive features of PTSD, avoiding the unwanted psychotropic effects of compounds directly binding cannabinoid receptors.”
Tag Archives: cannabis
Cannabis users have higher premorbid IQ than other patients with first onset psychosis.
“A number of studies have reported that patients with psychosis who use cannabis have better cognitive performance than those who do not.
… we tested the hypothesis that patients who smoked cannabis would have a higher premorbid IQ than patients who did not.
Patients who had ever smoked cannabis had significantly higher current and premorbid IQ compared to patients who had never used cannabis…”
The medical necessity for medicinal cannabis: prospective, observational study evaluating the treatment in cancer patients on supportive or palliative care.
“Cancer patients using cannabis report better influence from the plant extract than from synthetic products… We followed patients with a medicinal cannabis license to evaluate the advantages and side effects of using cannabis by cancer patients…
All cancer or anticancer treatment-related symptoms showed significant improvement.
No significant side effects except for memory lessening in patients with prolonged cannabis use were noted.
Conclusion. The positive effects of cannabis on various cancer-related symptoms are tempered by reliance on self-reporting for many of the variables. Although studies with a control group are missing, the improvement in symptoms should push the use of cannabis in palliative treatment of oncology patients.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23956774
Full Text: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/510392/
D.C. Councilmember: ‘Marijuana Does Not Do Harm, It’s Not A Gateway Drug’ – CBSNews
““It’s time for us to recognize that marijuana does not do harm,” said Grosso. “It’s not a gateway drug like people think it is. It’s not causing massive accidents or causing people to go crazy on the streets. And it’s just leading a lot of kids right to jail…””
MYTH: Marijuana Is a “Gateway” Drug – CBSNews
“Despite anti-drug education campaigns which state marijuana is a gateway for harder drug use, new research from the University of New Hampshire says for most people that’s not true.” “But pot does serves as a “gateway,” says Dr. Karen Van Gund, associate professor of sociology., mainly for young people who are poor, unemployed, and subjected to severe psychological stress. In other words, the path to other drugs is not necessarily the pot, but rather the potholes young people encounter on the road.”
Pot smokers skinnier than non-tokers, study says – NBCNews
“We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the typical pot smoker — a lumpy, lazy couch potato with one hand wrapped around the remote and the other elbow-deep in a bag of nacho cheese Doritos.
But new research out of France gives a different spin to the stereotypical stoner.
“Cannabis is supposed to increase appetite,” says Dr. Yann Le Strat, a psychiatrist at Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, France and co-author of a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. “So we hypothesized that cannabis users would be more likely to have higher weight than non-users and be more likely to be obese.”
Instead, Le Strat and his colleagues found just the opposite.
“We found that cannabis users are less likely to be obese than non-users,” he says. “We were so surprised, we thought we had [made] a mistake. Or that our results were due to the sample we studied. So we turned to another completely independent sample and found exactly the same association…”
“I know when we think about smoking pot, one of the jokes is that it gives you the munchies and dry mouth so you drink a bunch of water and eat a bunch of Cheetos,” she says.
“Maybe we need to adjust the stereotype.””
More: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/pot-smokers-skinnier-non-tokers-study-says-1C6437141
Medical Use For Cannabis And It’s Healing Properties
“Cannabis is the medical term for marijuana. In it’s botanical form, it’s plant is called genus. Three plant forms govern the name cannabis, and have been known for their healing/medical properties since ancient times. All three types are used medically, however, they all have different results and are taken for different reasons. Although there has been much controversy over legalizing cannabis in many states through out our nation, medical experts are standing up to the challenge as scientist continue to reveal new studies indicating the importance of legalizing it strictly for medical reasons.”
Marijuana stops child’s severe seizures
“Saundra Young of CNN.com delved into the heated debate of medical marijuana and children, in her story about a little girl who has a rare, and severe form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. While the debate continues, the pro-legalization side may have won a small victory in the form of Charlotte Figi, 6, who was given her life back by marijuana…
Desperate for a treatment, Charlotte’s father Matt searched the Internet and eventually found a boy with a similar case in which medical marijuana helped his seizures. The Figi’s turned to the Stanley brothers, one of Colorado’s largest marijuana growers and dispensary owners, for help.
“These six brothers were crossbreeding a strain of marijuana low in THC, the compound in marijuana that’s psychoactive, and high in CBD, which has medicinal properties but no psychoactivity,” writes Young. But the Stanley brothers didn’t know what to do with this particular strain, as no one seemed to want to buy it. Then they met Charlotte.
The first time Charlotte tried a small dose of cannabis oil, the results were astounding:
“When she didn’t have those three, four seizures that first hour, that was the first sign,” Paige recalled. “And I thought well, ‘Let’s go another hour, this has got to be a fluke.'”
The Stanley brothers started the Realm of Caring Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides this particular strain of medical marijuana to adults and children suffering from a host of diseases. The strain used by Charlotte and 41 other patients is affectionately called Charlotte’s Web.
Charlotte’s seizures stopped for seven days after her first dose and today she is eating, and walking on her own — even riding a bike, her parents say. Charlotte gets a dose of the cannabis oil twice a day in her food and her seizures are down to 2 to 3 per month.
“I literally see Charlotte’s brain making connections that haven’t been made in years,” Matt said. “My thought now is, why were we the ones that had to go out and find this cure? This natural cure? How come a doctor didn’t know about this? How come they didn’t make me aware of this?”
Read the full article on CNN.com.”
More: http://www.philly.com/philly/health/Marijuana_stops_childs_severe_seizures.html
Modesto, Calif. dad turns to medical marijuana to save son
“Jason David from Modesto chronicles the ups and downs with his 6-year-old son Jayden, who was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, on a Facebook page called Jason and Jayden’s Journey.” https://www.facebook.com/jasonandjaydensjourney
“Jayden was diagnosed with Dravet, a rare form of epilepsy, when he was a baby. Since then, he has had seizures preventing him from walking, playing and living life.
“At one point Jayden had seizures 24 hours a day lasting an hour and a half,” David said. “I went to my doctor and said, ‘I don’t think Jayden is going to last, he can’t sleep, can’t eat, he hasn’t used the restroom, he can’t do anything.'”
David said his son has been taken away in an ambulance more than 40 times. He’s also taken 22 pills a day — 12 different kinds and none of them worked.
David said it got so bad that he wanted to kill himself and put a gun to his head.
But now, those thoughts are long gone.
As a last resort, David turned to medical marijuana. Specifically, a liquid form that contains a component known as CBD.
Jayden’s pediatrician prescribes it to Jayden and says the liquid form maintains medicinal qualities, while giving less of a high.
Jayden has been getting a few drops a day for the past two years and David said it’s been a remarkable difference.
Jayden is the most independent he’s ever been. He plays well, can walk and give his dad high fives, David said.
“(The) first day I gave him medical marijuana, thank God. (It was) the first day he went seizure free in his life,”he said.
David said he wants to share his story to help other parents in the same situation.
He says parents need to educate themselves and do what’s right for their own children.
The father and son have been featured in numerous articles and television shows. Jason and Jayden will be featured as a small piece in a special about medical marijuana with Dr. Sanjay Gupta that airs Sunday on CNN.
Jayden’s pediatrician said he is seeing more children with autism and seizures who are benefiting from medical marijuana.
The doctor admits not a lot of studies have been done on medicinal marijuana, which is why doctors across the board may have differing opinions.
However, doctors at the University of California-San Francisco are now studying the affects the CBD component in medical marijuana has on epileptic children.”
Dad says marijuana saved his 6-year-old son’s life – msn
“”Miraculous” stories from people who say medical marijuana helped them when all else failed keep rolling in.”
“The latest? A 6-year-old boy from Modesto, Calif., named Jayden David. Just like a young girl in Colorado, he suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. The disorder gave Jayden seizures so severe and frequent, he couldn’t walk, play or do much of anything. He often had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors prescribed as many as 22 pills a day. Nothing worked. “At one point Jayden had seizures 24 hours a day lasting an hour and a half,” his father, Jason David, told local station KCRA. “I went to my doctor and said, ‘I don’t think Jayden is going to last. He can’t sleep, can’t eat. He hasn’t used the restroom. He cant do anything.'”
With no alternate options, the doctor prescribed a liquid form of cannabis called CBD, which gives less of a high. It was the first day of his entire life that Jayden went seizure-free. In the two years since, he’s taken CBD daily and now walks, plays and laughs happily. Jason credits medical marijuana with saving his son’s life — and says he’s speaking out now to help other parents with children in Jayden’s situation. “How can I not tell people, ‘Hey, save your children’s lives?'” he asks.”
http://now.msn.com/jayden-david-6-was-saved-by-medical-marijuana-dad-says