Finding applies only to pot in pill or spray form, neurologists say
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, April 28, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Medical marijuana can help relieve some symptoms of multiple sclerosis, but whether it can benefit patients with other neurological disorders is still unclear, according to a new review by top neurologists.
Doctors with the American Academy of Neurology reviewed current research and found certain forms of marijuana — but not smoked marijuana — can help treat MS symptoms such as muscle stiffness, certain types of pain and muscle spasms, and overactive bladder.
“There are receptors in the brain that respond to marijuana, and the locations of the receptors are in places where you would expect them to help with these symptoms,” said Dr. Barbara Koppel, a professor of neurology at New York Medical College in New York City and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.
But marijuana can’t help tremors caused by MS or involuntary muscle spasms caused by the use of levodopa to treat Parkinson’s disease, the physicians concluded.
Their review included other neurological disorders such as Huntington’s disease, Tourette syndrome and epilepsy, but the doctors found too little quality research to determine whether medical marijuana can help these conditions.
“We were frustrated that we couldn’t say that it’s good for this or bad for that. It’s just a function of the lack of studies that were usable,” Koppel said. “We see this review as a starting point for having more studies get done so we can review them down the road.”
The academy’s guideline development subcommittee presented the review Monday at the academy’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, the world’s largest gathering of neurologists. It also is published in the April 29 issue of Neurology.
The panel of experts looked at more than 1,700 study abstracts before focusing on 34 studies that dealt specifically with brain disorders.
Their findings recommend the use of medical marijuana for MS only if taken in pill or spray form, not by smoking it, Koppel said.
Converting marijuana to pill or spray form allows doctors to control the dose that patients receive of the drug’s two medically helpful ingredients — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which gets a person high, and the nonpsychoactive component cannabidiol, or CBD.
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cannabinoid receptors
http://science.howstuffworks.com/marijuana3.htm
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