People with multiple sclerosis suffer muscle spasms, pain and tremor. Studies find that medical marijuana may be helpful, but controlled studies are few.
A recent study conducted had 51 multiple sclerosis patients smoke 0% or 4% THC medical marijuana cigarettes daily for 3 days.
Participants noticed a reduction of 32% and pain ratings by 50% after smoking medical marijuana, compared with only a 2% and 22% reductions after fake cigarettes.
Five of the participants withdrew, saying the side effects made them feeling too high, dizzy or fatigued.
Other studies in patients with multiple sclerosis used a cannabis extract that can be taken orally. In a 2007 European Journal of Neurology study, nearly half of’4 patients experienced at least 30% improvement in muscle spasms.
There was a contradiction in a 2004 Neurology paper that showed no reduction in objective measures of arm tremor with cannabis extract even after 5 subjects out of- stated that they felt improvement.
These reports could have been from the mood altering effects of the drug or from some aspect of tremor not measured.
The research found that the individuals who participated felt high, however the effects varied among individuals. Marijuana also affected logical skills, such as problems with tasks of memory and complicated reasoning after the strongest medical marijuana cigarettes were used.
As adverse of a side effect as this could be, the effects were tolerated by subjects; no one opted out of the study because they couldn’t focus.
The study points out that it’s important to have a choice of treatments because not everyone responds to or can tolerate the available drugs.
Antidepressants are used for neuropathic pain but cause dry mouth, constipation and urinary problems, and must be avoided by people with conditions such as glaucoma.
Some patients are allergic to aspirin-like drugs. Having an “plan B” compound is always a good idea. The three pain studies all concluded that smoked marijuana can bring relief to sufferers of neuropathic pain comparable to other analgesic drugs.
As with all other pain medicines, you have to keep taking it.