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.
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[1] http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Documents/90000000.0-00001.pdf
I even react to certain foods and beverages as if I am ingesting drugs. I think mj would wreak havoc in my system.
Believe me, the sooner I can get off meds, the happier I'll be. I don't know if I ever will---pain from my post-accidnet is so severe it's either one poison or another or end up in the ER in so much pain I can go into shock. (No exaggeration, alas---the one ER doc got to know me by name, *sigh*.) I've avoided heavy narcs so far by using a lot of non-pharmaceutical methods, but.... if I could eat a dang cookie instead of all this weird stuff? *CHOMP*
And its HORRIBLY political (because there's HUGE $$$ on the line), which ... though I'll TRY to stay away from ... is hard to overlook.
I would pretty much NEVER recommend that anybody try pot .... who doesn't WANT to try pot.
Okay ? I want to be crystal clear on that.
But, societally, we've been told for decades and decades that it's evil.
It isn't.
Somebody else (astutely) pointed out that booze and cigs kill LOTS of people. Pot's never killed anybody ... in about 5,000 years that it's been around in a big way.
Again: not recommending it to anybody.
But many/most/some of us will take just about any *pill* that the health care folks will throw at us.
And we KNOW that those kill more Americans every year than automobile collisions.
So ... over time ... it's VERY good to keep an open mind, and watch what unfolds.
One quick anecdote: when my sister-in-law was battling breast cancer, the chemo nausea was brutalizing her. Medical marijuana was legal. After biting my tongue for weeks, and watching her suffer.... I finally mentioned it to her.
"Oh, God. That's ALL I need: LUNG cancer ON TOP OF breast cancer !!!"
She reacted as though I was trying to make her sicker. I know (Lord knows, I know....) she was sick and miserable, and not thinking 100%, but .....
But this is the 'attitude part' that we should all try to chillax about.
As has been discussed, here, nobody has to use it, and nobody has to smoke it, but ....
While the doctors were poisoning my SIL, in a genuine effort to save her life ... there was a misguided irony to a steadfast refusal to eat a cookie, here and there, that may have given her *substantial* relief of a really debilitating symptom of treatment.
And ... a few weeks of occasional vaporizing or taking edibles (or whatever, but not smoking) ... wasn't going to give her lung cancer ;-)
Know what I mean ??
I'll be watching. I'll be interested to see what they learn (or, more importantly, what studies get funded, by whom, and which of them ever gets published !).
Pain. Gone (or significantly reduced). That's awesome !
I think about those "first time I tried it....." stories, too, and am reminded .....
For anybody who's tried anti-depressants .... how did THOSE feel for the first week or two ??
For me ... it was a bad trip. I'm also very sensitive to meds, so the first couple weeks on the AD's ... always left me wiggy. But I almost always soldiered on ... in hopes of getting past the cost and on TO the benefit.
For those for whom medical marijuana (MMJ) use IS of interest ... I might suggest managing that expectation, too: the first time ... might NOT be as smooth as it will ever get.
Heck ... I remember my first time trying booze !
[Or -- more correctly -- I do NOT remember it LOL !]
Peace out :-)
My first out with an AD? 3 day so fCymbalta. By Day 3 I was asking myself, "Who is thinking this stuff b/c it sure as he** ain't ME!" I went off at once (altered thinking BAD).... Prozac so far so good, I just get tired a little more easily but that's my life now anyways, so who knows....
I remember my first experience with alcohol, which is why I avoided it after!
For over a year, I've been prescribed meds that have had terrible side effects.... seizures, migraines, fever, headaches. More med 'trials' on me and my sensitivity to meds. Prescribing NP says eventually my body will adjust. It hasn't .
When I used pot years ago, I never had seizures. The osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease were bearable. I wasn't debilitated with anxiety or depression. I had energy. My hair wasn't falling out.
MJ is medically legal in this state. This is my next option. I'm tired of not being able to drive due to seizures. I'm tired and frustrated over med tweaks that give more side effects than relief.
I've never heard of any deaths due to MJ use. How many people have had their liver and kidneys destroyed by alcohol or other meds?
I'm glad we DS-ers are open minded on the subject. You never know where our next safe, effective treatment might come from.
jraernr: Amen !!
Check out this story (if you aren't familiar with it):
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/
This is the story, if memory serves, that got Neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta to do a total 180 (turnaround) on medical marijuana.
And I can only say "Ohhhhh, yeah," when you talk about "iatrogenic" (medically caused) harm.
My first serious med reaction flew me half-way across the country to be seen by one of the nation's top Immunology clinics: National Jewish Health, in Denver.
My SECOND med reaction (Brachial Plexus Neuropathy, the day after getting a DPT vaccine, in advance of a friend's wedding, in Belize (that I obviously missed)) flew me halfway across the country to the Mayo Clinic, in Minnesota.
I'm currently working on my THIRD health crisis that appears to be a med reaction. This one ... put the other two to shame; nearly killed me. Still not 100% sure it didn't/hasn't/won't.
And it might turn out to be really blatant malpractice, but ... as I've learned ... I don't have more money than the doctors and the hospitals, so ... I won't fight it, or I'll likely lose, and .... the entire process would be one big trigger for me.
But those dear, sweet, compassionate people ... back where I come from ... made me agree not to use any kind of marijuana for any reason, or ... face Felony charges.
So I haven't.
And I've just dealt with the pain of chemically-burned eyes.
But you know what I would bet ? I would BET that -- whether or not it helped me -- marijuana wouldn't have hurt me.
We grow up thinking that our justice system is imperfect, but the best in the world. I KNOW that other countries have horror stories about THEIR justice systems.
But we have ours.
And I have mine.
I wish us all ... peace ... HEALTH ... and strength.
And freedom from "iatrogenic" harm ;-)
Yeah. Peace out. Ain't it just charming ? :-)