Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
Has the potential treatment of PTSD gone to pot ??
http://news.yahoo.com/us-government-signs-off-study-130000693.html
While I won't be jumping at this any time soon ... like the recent studies on LSD for anxiety disorders [1] ... I think this is fascinating stuff !
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Temecula, CA / Accesswire / March 18, 2014 / The federal government has recently signed off on a study aimed at using marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. drug policy.
The Department of Health and Human Services' decision surprised medical marijuana advocates who have been struggling for decades to secure federal approval for research into the drug's medical uses.
The initial proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug.
In correspondence last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is supporting medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.
"MAPS has been working for over 22 years to start marijuana drug development research, and this is the first time we've been granted permission to purchase marijuana from NIDA," the group said in a statement. The government has never before approved medical research involving smoked or vaporized marijuana, according to MAPS.
While more than a million Americans taking medical marijuana, usually for chronic pain, rigorous medical research into the drug's effects has been limited, in part due to federal restrictions.
Sisley's study will measure the effects of several different potencies of smoked or vaporized marijuana in treating symptoms of PTSD in 50 veterans.
The US Veterans Administration estimates between 11 to 20 percent of soldiers who served in the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, which can cause anxiety, flashbacks, depression and sleep deprivation. Approximately 7.7 million American adults are estimated to have the disorder.
Physicians worldwide have long speculated that marijuana could be used to calm parts of the brain linked to overstimulation and anxiety, though little formal research has been conducted.
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[1] http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Documents/90000000.0-00001.pdf
http://news.yahoo.com/us-government-signs-off-study-130000693.html
While I won't be jumping at this any time soon ... like the recent studies on LSD for anxiety disorders [1] ... I think this is fascinating stuff !
----
Temecula, CA / Accesswire / March 18, 2014 / The federal government has recently signed off on a study aimed at using marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. drug policy.
The Department of Health and Human Services' decision surprised medical marijuana advocates who have been struggling for decades to secure federal approval for research into the drug's medical uses.
The initial proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug.
In correspondence last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is supporting medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.
"MAPS has been working for over 22 years to start marijuana drug development research, and this is the first time we've been granted permission to purchase marijuana from NIDA," the group said in a statement. The government has never before approved medical research involving smoked or vaporized marijuana, according to MAPS.
While more than a million Americans taking medical marijuana, usually for chronic pain, rigorous medical research into the drug's effects has been limited, in part due to federal restrictions.
Sisley's study will measure the effects of several different potencies of smoked or vaporized marijuana in treating symptoms of PTSD in 50 veterans.
The US Veterans Administration estimates between 11 to 20 percent of soldiers who served in the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, which can cause anxiety, flashbacks, depression and sleep deprivation. Approximately 7.7 million American adults are estimated to have the disorder.
Physicians worldwide have long speculated that marijuana could be used to calm parts of the brain linked to overstimulation and anxiety, though little formal research has been conducted.
----
[1] http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Documents/90000000.0-00001.pdf
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I haven't written in my diary on my computer since May because I thought that my computer was dying. I got away from writing but my computer is hanging in there. I think that I will start writing in it again. It's so therapeutic.
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First, I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing to fight that good fight! Keep up the great work on yourselves; I'm rooting for all of you!So, I started doing therapy at the beginning of the year, when I was in my most depressed state, but with my therapist, I made big changes and steps in the right direction. But, over a month ago, she couldn't take my insurance anymore, and I had to stop...
i don't partake too often, but in my opinion, it is far less harmful than the benzodiazepams my shrink used to prescribe to me for my sleep problems.
I'm still under Court-order NOT to use it ... even where it's legal (why ? I have NO idea), but it's been repeatedly recommended for my neuropathic eye pain.
[do you have eye pain, MojoPaw ?]
So ... since I won't risk prison ... I went back to the old-school docs, and took THEIR meds.
Which ... appears (I should know shortly) to have torched my liver, on Christmas Day, and nearly killed me (1 in 3 die from what hit me).
Meaning: Ohhhhhh, am I ever with you on that one :-)
I do not partake myself and haven't in over 20 years but I do have some nights I am convinced a joint, a good snuggling partner and some chocolate would make my problems go away.
Thakns for post!
Maybe I am wrong, but b/c the majority smoke marijuana, I believe that the THC in it would bypass the liver and kidneys...the lungs being the main organ processing the active ingredient...so maybe little to no affect on the liver and kidneys? That's my train of thought...I'm using rescue inhaler at the moment and asked my pharmacist if it could cause damage to my GI/Liver/Kidneys b/c I take a lot of meds and he said very minute impact since the medicine in the inhaler is absorbed mainly through the lungs and very little left over to pass through the kidneys...I can't say the same is true for weed, but the logic seems similar.
It people choose the gummy bears and other edible forms, I imagine there may be greater effect on the kidneys and liver, but that is one big guess on my part.
I would like to see those same studies you mentioned as well.
Best, Anna
From what I've read over the years, I absolutely think it is far more helpful and less harmful than the majority of "legal" drugs out there. I have never understood it being illegal, while alcohol and tobacco are.
I've often wondered if it would benefit people with multiple illnesses, in multiple ways, hence it being illegal. I mean, come on - we can't have the physicians and pharmacies going out of business, now can we.
As a result, the choice seemed to me to be either to be symptomatic without marihuana or be too stoned to function well at work and socially.Maybe as medical marihuana is legalized that will change.
I agree with Mojo about how the legal drugs prescribed are likely to be more harmful to the body than marihuana, or THC, in the right doses would be. After all, legal psychiatric meds did my kidneys in for good.
I would like to know when and if the recreational chattter about legalizing medical marihuana dies down enough to have real clinical facts out there. I imagine there are patients like me who'd like to know about THC and how it could help me without hurting my performance at work.
Ironically, one of the symptoms of the kidney disease I know have is loss of mental concentration. Like being stoned.
Both my daughter and sister in law have medical cards and approved scripts.. Both know I can't handle the smell of it without anxiety, So they "cookie" it when around me.
I would like to see this report, for the help it would give others.
the only thing i have a bit of a worry about is all the carcinogenics. i vapourize it or eat it if/when i take it. it is many, many times worse in tar levels than a cigarette, so there are legitimate concerns lung-wise.
oh yeah, and the paranoia. that is the reason i only use it 3-4 times a year, when i'm feeling the nightmares coming on. otherwise, no way....it has turned on me, and i was hiding under my bed in fear.
Largely because there's a lot of money to be made FROM pot now.
Meaning: there are a billion different strains, with a billion different strengths (THC %'age), and ... a whole bunch of sort of hard-to-quantify stuff.
Meaning (and I do have friends who have their script cards, who've verified this): you can talk to the dispensaries about what you want or don't want, and .... there tends to be a strain that works better for that.
Some make you energetic. Some make you relaxed and sleepy.
Likewise, I understand some of the new strains greatly REDUCE the paranoia that lots of people do/did get.
Some might give you the munchies. Others might reduce your appetite (hard for ME to imagine, but .... LOL !).
Some are for this kind of pain. Some are for that kind of pain.
It's really rather fascinating.
Yeah: edibles or tea or vaporizing ... are probably much less toxic to the body than the old-fashioned smoking.
But .... being careful (particularly if you're not accustomed to it) is GREAT advice.
The new strains -- generally -- have a LOT more THC in them than what used to come my way during all those wonderful Grateful Dead shows ;-)
I'll try to keep an eye out for updates......