Research on Medicinal Marijuana for PTSD
2000 individuals selected from nine medical marijuana evaluation clinics were studied. 37.8% of these individuals testified to using marijuana to help with PTSD. 20% declared that they use it to relieve panic attacks and 50% reported they use marijuana to relax. The research team discovered that 15% of the people being studied got authorization for their medical marijuana cards as a result of PTSD. In another study, 1000 medical marijuana users were studied. It was discovered that 60% of this group use medical marijuana for PTSD as treatment. These participants reported that medical marijuana helped to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD.
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Walsh and other research partners reviewed existing literature on this subject and found that medical marijuana was useful in handling PTSD. Multiple cross-sectional studies revealed that medical marijuana users enjoyed PTSD reduction; however, one of the studies postulated that when the medical marijuana user stopped using it, the symptoms of PTSD returned. This means that medicinal marijuana isn’t necessarily able to cure PTSD but can give relief while seeking more appropriate treatment.
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While the scientific fraternity on recently started to take a serious look at marijuana on PTSD, it has been confirmed that it does provide temporary benefits.
Can Medical Marijuana Help Treat PTSD and Night Terror Disorders? A study done by scientists at discovered that consuming marijuana can greatly reduce depression, PTSD and stress. These, however, are short term benefits. It has been reported by these scientists that it doesn’t bring about a long-term reduction. They have also reported that among the population examined in the research, they found that some individuals had an increase in depression related to PTSD over time after using marijuana.
Summary of Other Available Research
- The THC compound in marijuana has been proven to induce PTSD; however, CBD has been confirmed as a helpful compound in reducing PTSD.
- Those who overuse marijuana must bear in mind that its use can potentially have health risks during withdrawal.
- Medical marijuana users with PTSD or severe levels of pain have experienced a reduction in symptoms related to PTSD.
- There are some research limitations including small sample sizes that present a challenge to categorically state that cannabis use in alleviating the symptoms of PTSD.
When States such as Colorado, Washington and now Florida to name a few have each passed ballot measures legalizing marijuana for recreational use late last year, one legal challenge was resolved, but another was just beginning Before, marijuana was simply prohibited. Now it has to be regulated. With their new legal standards for possession and use, many states now have to draw hard lines on a rather hazy landscape, creating legal standards not just for for taxation and licensing, but also some far more nebulous questions, like how much marijuana is reasonable for a single person to possess, and even what constitutes legal intoxication. Meanwhile, forty-eight other states are watching closely to see exactly how they do it. Contact a medical marijuana doctor in Florida today to get started on your medical marijuana card today.
Under the new state standards (which, by the way, could still be challenged by the federal government) came to a head last month at the state house as legislators hashed out just exactly how local and state authorities will handle these questions. They also tackled the thorniest issue of all, one that has been a sticking point for previous legalization efforts and one that is eventually bound to go ’round and ’round in courtrooms: what scientifically constitutes “under the influence” of marijuana, and how can clinicians and law enforcement determine if someone most importantly, a driver is too high for the public good? Looking for a marijuana doctor in Tampa FL? We can help!
Under House Bill 1114, the answer is five nanograms. If a blood screen detects five or more nanograms of THC (that’s delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) per milliliter of blood in a person’s bloodstream, that individual is considered legally under the influence of drugs. Washington has also set its intoxication limit at five nanograms per milliliter. But the question is not that simple. What is marijuana impairment what constitutes being “too high” to drive and how can we scientifically evaluate it, particularly in a law enforcement context? Moreover, how can police officers test for it conclusively at the roadside, where blood tests aren’t available? How lawmakers define and answer these questions will have a lot to do with marijuana policy in the U.S. going forward, and unfortunately the body of science describing marijuana’s effects on the brain and body though vast isn’t exactly bound by broad consensus. Five nanograms per milliliter is a place for policy to start, but it’s by no means the last word determining how high is too high.
“Smoking is a very efficient way to deliver drugs to the brain, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Intramural Research Program, part of the National Institutes of Health. “It goes into the lungs, into the heart, and gets pumped directly to the brain.”
Researchers have spent a career studying the effects of marijuana on the brain and the psychomotor capabilities of individuals, both among acute users (those that use marijuana occasionally) and chronic users who partake of marijuana daily. Unlike alcohol, which requires at least a little bit of time to work its way into the bloodstream, marijuana has shown in own studies to manifest itself within the first minute after use. From there, one’s ability to responsibly operate heavy machinery begins to come into question.
Cannabinoid receptors (known as CB1 receptors) in the brain are found in many key regions, including the amygdala (responsible for processing memory and emotional reactions) as well as the basal ganglia and cerebellum (responsible for motor control, among other things). “We know that when people smoke marijuana the lose some of their peripheral vision. “We know it affects the passage of time, or the idea of how rapidly time is passing. It affects balance. And one of the most interesting areas it affects is the prefrontal cortex.” Looking for a marijuana doctor in Orlando FL? We can help!
Driving is an exercise in timing, multitasking, and situational awareness and not one well suited for the cannabinoid-impaired. The prefrontal cortex is what separates us from other animals. It’s home to our executive function, the place where we take in and process information and use it to make choices about various courses of action. Cannabis impacts our executive function, which can slow or alter decision-making abilities. Moreover, it makes our brains work harder, and not necessarily in a good way. In tests, an individual dosed with cannabis can often perform a task just as well as he or she would if sober. But brain imaging of dosed individuals shows that it requires much more brainpower to complete that task. That means that under the influence of cannabis the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, or to divide attention effectively, dwindles significantly. Even more specific to driving, marijuana has been shown in various studies to affect what’s known as “standard deviation of lateral pursuit,” or that natural, somewhat innate ability to hold an automobile more or less right in the middle of a traffic lane.
None of this reduced peripheral vision, slowed decision making, inability to multitask enhances one’s ability to drive. Humans are more prone to distraction when dosed with cannabis, and in the context of a moving vehicle a misperception of the passage of time translates to a misperception of distance as well, at least in the sense of how quickly a car traveling at a given speed will reach some distant object. That being said, individuals under the influence of cannabis unlike those under the influence of alcohol tend to be aware of their impairment. Some studies have shown that stoned drivers are more cautious behind the wheel and tend to drive more slowly. But that’s not really any kind of compensation. Driving is an exercise in timing, multitasking, and situational awareness — and not one well suited for the cannabinoid-impaired.
“The properties of marijuana are not going to liken themselves very much to a ‘breathalyzer’ type test,” says Doctors. “I think it’s going to have to be a different bodily fluid if you’re looking for more immediate testing.”
Why? For one, THC is fat-soluble, which means it can be absorbed by the body’s fat cells and remain within the metabolism for extended periods of time. For heavy users, THC can remain within the body for days, making it difficult to connect the presence of THC in a person’s bloodstream and in a current state of impairment. For chronic users the picture is even murkier. Regular marijuana users who stop using cannabis can still have detectable amounts of THC in the bloodstream even 30 days after they cease using. There are even documented cases of former chronic users that haven’t had a dose of cannabis in years testing positive for THC while undergoing rapid weight loss. THC is really good at tucking itself away in the body’s fat cells, and it can remain there for a really long time.
Complicating things further still: an emerging body of scientific evidence suggests that this residual THC in the bloodstream of chronic users might still cause impairment. Though the effects of these trace amounts of THC in the bloodstream don’t manifest themselves with nearly the intensity that a fresh blast of THC to the CB1 receptors does, many note that there is research out there suggesting that just because these levels of THC are relatively low doesn’t mean they aren’t having some impairing effects on the psychomotor skills of both acute and chronic users for the duration that THC remains in the bloodstream. Looking for a marijuana doctor in Bradenton FL? We can help!
All that is to say that detecting the presence of THC in the bloodstream doesn’t necessarily correlate to impairment, and there’s certainly no overwhelming body of hard science that can draw connections between a specific amount of THC in the blood (like, say, five nanograms per milliliter) and a specific degree of impairment. Things grow more dubious still at the place where government really needs certainty the most: at the roadside.
The most promising solution for the problem of roadside THC testing in recent years has been oral specimen testing. Several academic and government labs as well as commercial companies have developed various tests claiming they can detect THC in the bloodstream via handheld devices that analyze a swab taken from inside a subject’s mouth. But the results have been mixed — mostly mixed degrees of disappointment.
You can get really good results from THC testing via oral sample in the lab, but the problems with collecting and analyzing samples at the roadside became immediately apparent to early adopters of the portable oral specimen technology. First, THC is so lipophilic that it had a tendency to stick to the collection devices themselves, which dulled the sensitivity of the analysis from the point of that samples were collected. Saliva is also loaded with enzymes that break molecules down, so in the period between collecting the oral sample and getting it to a lab for analysis the samples would continue to degrade themselves, further skewing the results.
But assuming there was an oral specimen test that was effective for accurately measuring THC in the bloodstream at the roadside, there’s still the problem of correlating it to impairment, which is ultimately what law enforcement officers are concerned with, especially in a context where possession and use are no longer strictly prohibited.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done to really tie in all those connections, to say that if you do pick up this level of a marijuana metabolite in a oral fluid specimen there is some solid scientific evidence that also indicates some degree of impairment or effects on the behavior of the individual Medicine. “And that’s harder to do than with blood ethanol.”
Nonetheless, the state of both the science and the technology is improving. The tools for oral specimen detection and analysis improve each and every year and her own lab recently folded trials of a new portable oral specimen diagnostic into experiments there. Under controlled conditions in which the THC levels of dosed subjects were being tested independently in the lab this new portable device showed impressive efficacy with very low incidence of false negatives or false positives. Schedule your appointment today. Contact All Natural MD to find a location near you.
Evaluating medical marijuana condition by condition is not an easy task as its research and study is hampered as it is by the federal government’s ban on government-supported data collection. Observational studies in which users simply report their experiences may look peachy. Animal and test-tube studies also can sound promising. But plenty of stuff that helps mice or a clump of cells in a petri dish may not help us humans. Despite these obstacles, there are some conditions and diseases for which cannabis is clearly a useful treatment. Others, not so much.
There are many other conditions that will qualify you for a medical marijuana card in Florida. Check with the All Natural MD team as they will assist you with your medical marijuana doctors recommendation and renewals. Visit https://floridasmedicalmarijuana.com today to learn more.
Anxiety
Anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress. It’s a feeling of fear or apprehension about what’s to come. The first day of school, going to a job interview, or giving a speech may cause most people to feel fearful and nervous. But if your feelings of anxiety are extreme, last for longer than six months, and are interfering with your life, you may have an anxiety disorder. We recommend you seek and evaluation and treatment. Visit a All Natural MD Lakeland marijuana doctor today. More Here.
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Depression
Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.
Insomnia
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s ICSD-3 manual, insomnia is defined as “persistent difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation or quality.” Insomnia has many potential contributing factors and symptoms, but its diagnosis hinges on two essential components: sleep difficulties that occur despite adequate opportunities for normal sleep, and daytime impairment that directly results from poor sleep quality or duration. Visit an All Natural MD Orlando marijuana doctor today. More Here.
Bipolar
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental illness that brings severe high and low moods and changes in sleep, energy, thinking, and behavior. People who have bipolar disorder can have periods in which they feel overly happy and energized and other periods of feeling very sad, hopeless, and sluggish. In between those periods, they usually feel normal. You can think of the highs and the lows as two “poles” of mood, which is why it’s called “bipolar” disorder.
ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder that affects how you pay attention, sit still, and control your behavior. It happens in children and teens and can continue into adulthood. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder in children. Boys are more likely to have it than girls. It’s usually spotted during the early school years, when a child begins to have problems paying attention. ADHD can’t be prevented or cured. But spotting it early, plus having a good treatment and education plan, can help a child or adult with ADHD manage their symptoms. Visit a All Natural MD Sarasota marijuana doctor today. More Here.
PTSD
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury.
Chronic Pain
Chronic Pain is a signal in your nervous system that something may be wrong. It is an unpleasant feeling, such as a prick, tingle, sting, burn, or ache. Pain may be sharp or dull. You may feel pain in one area of your body, or all over. There are two types: acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain lets you know that you may be injured or a have problem you need to take care of. Chronic pain is different. The pain may last for weeks, months, or even years. The original cause may have been an injury or infection. There may be an ongoing cause of pain, such as arthritis or cancer. In some cases there is no clear cause. Environmental and psychological factors can make chronic pain worse. Visit a All Natural MD Tampa marijuana doctor today. More Here.
Headaches
The most common type of headache is a tension headache. Study shows that tension headaches are due to tight muscles in your shoulders, neck, scalp and jaw. They are often related to stress, depression or anxiety. You are more likely to get tension headaches if you work too much, don’t get enough sleep, miss meals, or use alcohol. Other common types of headaches include migraines, cluster headaches, and sinus headaches. Most people can feel much better by making lifestyle changes, learning ways to relax and taking pain relievers.
IBS
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a problem that affects the large intestine. It can cause abdominal cramping, bloating, and a change in bowel habits. Some people with the disorder have constipation. Some have diarrhea. Others go back and forth between the two. Although IBS can cause a great deal of discomfort, it does not harm the intestines. IBS is common. It affects about twice as many women as men and is most often found in people younger than 45 years. No one knows the exact cause of IBS. There is no specific test for it. Your doctor may run tests to be sure you don’t have other diseases. These tests may include stool sampling tests, blood tests, and x-rays. Your doctor may also do a test called a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. Most people diagnosed with IBS can control their symptoms with diet, stress management, probiotics, and medicine. Visit a All Natural MD Brandon marijuana doctor today. More Here.
Ulcerative Colitis
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease. It causes irritation, inflammation, and ulcers in the lining of your large intestine (also called your colon). There’s no cure, and people usually have symptoms off and on for life. But the right treatments can help you keep a handle on the disease.
Chron’s
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract. Symptoms include abdominal pain and diarrhea, sometimes bloody, and weight loss. Crohn’s treatment consists of lifestyle changes, such as exercise and a healthy diet, as well as over-the-counter antidiarrhetics and prescription anti-inflammatory medication.
Cancer
Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and multiply (through a process called cell division) to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place. There are many types of cancer including breast, colon, prostate and more. Visit a All Natural MD Bradenton marijuana doctor today. More Here.
Seizures
Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain. People are diagnosed with epilepsy when they have had two or more seizures. There are many types of seizures. A person with epilepsy can have more than one type of seizure.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a condition that damages your eye’s optic nerve. It gets worse over time. It’s often linked to a buildup of pressure inside your eye. Glaucoma tends to run in families. You usually don’t get it until later in life. The increased pressure in your eye, called intraocular pressure, can damage your optic nerve, which sends images to your brain. If the damage worsens, symptoms of glaucoma can cause permanent vision loss or even total blindness within a few years. Visit a All Natural MD location to get started today.
There are many other conditions that will qualify you for a medical marijuana card in Florida. Check with the All Natural MD team as they will assist you with your medical marijuana doctors recommendation and renewals. Visit https://floridasmedicalmarijuana.com/ today to learn more.