PTSD Patients Experience Sustained Improvements After Medical Cannabis Use
International health researchers estimate that roughly 4% of the world’s total population suffers from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is one of the most common mental health conditions around the globe.
PTSD is typically treated via several different therapies, with common examples including different types of trauma-focused psychotherapy as well as pharmaceutical medications. Many of the pharmaceutical medications commonly used to treat PTSD can yield undesirable side effects.
A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom examined medical cannabis therapies and PTSD, with the researchers finding that the study’s subjects experienced sustained improvements following medical cannabis use. Below is more information about the study and its results via a news release from NORML:
London, United Kingdom: Patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress experience significant long-term benefits following their use of medical cannabis preparations, according to data published in the journal Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics.
British researchers assessed changes in patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) following the use of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs). (British health care providers may prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to patients unresponsive to conventional medications.) Two hundred and sixty-nine patients with post-traumatic stress enrolled in the United Kingdom’s Medical Cannabis Registry were enrolled in the trial. Participants’ symptoms were assessed at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months.
Consistent with other observational studies, “significant improvements in post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, sleep quality, and HRQoL were observed at all follow-up points.” Symptomatic improvements were sustained for the entire study period (18 months).
Other observational studies assessing the use of cannabis products among patients enrolled in the UK Medical Cannabis Registry have reported them to be effective for those diagnosed with cancer-related pain, anxiety, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, hypermobility disorders, depression, migraine, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, and inflammatory arthritis, among other conditions.
Full text of the study, “UK Medical Cannabis Registry: An updated clinical outcomes analysis of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder,” appears in Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics. Additional information on cannabis and post-traumatic stress is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.