Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:


After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

Cannabis based medicine improves MS symptoms

Multiple Sclerosis Trust

Wednesday 10 Oct 2012

The Multiple Sclerosis and Extract of Cannabis (MUSEC) study, which involved 279 people taking a cannabis based pill or placebo, has shown that a higher proportion of people taking the active treatment reported reductions in muscle stiffness, spasms, sleep quality and pain.

The phase III trial involved 22 specialist centres across the UK where 144 people with MS were given a pill of oral cannabis extract (tetrahydrocannabinol) and 135 people were given a placebo pill for 12 weeks.

Dosage was increased from 5 mg to a maximum of 25mg daily over two weeks for the people taking oral cannabis extract and maintained for ten weeks. The change in muscle stiffness reported by trial participants was recorded.

The rate of relief from muscle stiffness after 12 weeks was almost twice as high with the cannabis extract than with placebo, with similar results after four and eight weeks. Body pain, spasms and sleep quality were also improved. The differences were most noticeable among people who were not taking other medicines for muscle stiffness and spasms.

The authors conclude that the results of their trial indicate that cannabis extract could be a useful treatment for muscle stiffness in MS.

Currently a cannabis based medicine (Sativex) can be prescribed as an oromucosal spray to treat spasticity in MS when a person has shown inadequate response to other symptomatic treatments or found their side effects intolerable.

http://www.mstrust.org.uk/news/article.jsp?id=5564

 

 

 

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back. 




This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!