Cannabis makes MS patients feel worse, say experts

[bongme]

hi

The Scotsman

14th May Tuesday 2002

ALASTAIR DALTON

CANNABIS makes sufferers of multiple sclerosis feel worse, rather than easing their symptoms as has been claimed, according to doctors leading the largest completed trial of its type.

The Dutch findings place new doubt over the role of the drug in treating MS, which some sufferers have used illegally for years. Doctors in Amsterdam found that two cannabis treatments given to MS patients in the study did not help relieve involuntary muscle contractions caused by the disease, while one of them caused dizziness and headaches.

Dr Joep Killestein, of the VU Medical Centre, said patients who were given the drugs reported their symptoms were made worse compared with those given a placebo – a dummy treatment with no effects.

Sixteen patients were given capsules of marijuana plant extract, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a synthetic treatment based on the active ingredient in marijuana, or a placebo.

The patients’ symptoms did not change during the month-long trial, but the plant extract caused side effects such as dizziness and headaches.

Dr Killestein said: “Due to the limited number of patients, we can’t draw any definite conclusions, but these results suggest the synthetic THC and plant extract do not improve symptoms for MS patients.”

He said the drugs’ lack of effectiveness may have been because THC is often absorbed only slowly by stomach, or because the dose was too low.

However, Dr Killestein, whose research is reported in the journal Neurology, said he would not recommend a higher dose because of the observed side effects.

He said a previous study that showed cannabis relieved symptoms in mice was at a dosage unlikely to be tolerable in humans.

Professor Alan Thompson, of University College, London, who is using the same treatments as Dr Killestein in a trial involving 660 patients, said he hoped it would produce a more definite conclusion.

The 18-month study is due to be completed next year.

Bongme

[splan]

Thats because they were using extracts and not smoking/eating the real deal!

Its the unique combination of chemicals that gives cannabis its buzz.  I really don't think trying to isolate a single active ingredient is going to work!!

[maryjane]

the drug companies are looking and using he wrong principles with thc extract or synthetic thc.......

i smoked weed for years came of it at some medic profs whim .......hell was i ill , they almost killed me off

they then decided to give me nabilone a cannabinoid sythetic to boot ........stoned me to the dribbling stage ...still had pain side effects headaches from hell spaced out to the point nothing would function properly , my brain was saying walk my body was saying not a hells chance.......

i see a pain management consultant who totally agrees with me on this score ........the whole plant or non.......bits dont work , the whole plant is so complex as we are (as homosapiens) , it acts uniquely within each and every user.

just how many millions are being wasted on chemical substitues (to get around the law and make it a medicine ),  when medicinal users of all ilks know what works.  these millions could be used to enable the law to provide legislation for all medicinal users to either grow or go to a grow centre.

i know one thing if the law makers had to suffer for one day the law would change very very fast .  

mj