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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Cannabis 'Can Fight MS Symptoms'
John von Radowitz The Scotsman
Friday 10 Sep 2004 A glimmer of hope emerged today for sufferers of multiple sclerosis who believe they can be helped by cannabis. Preliminary results from a year-long study indicate that chemicals in the drug can fight symptoms of the devastating disease and reduce disability. The research started out as a short 15-week study of 667 patients with MS, some of whom were severely disabled and wheelchair-bound. Disappointingly, results published in the Lancet medical journal last year were inconclusive. Although some improvement in walking time was observed in mobile patients, there was no overall disability reduction. Patients individually reported that the treatment helped them to manage their symptoms, but independent examinations revealed no evidence of reduced muscle stiffness, or spasticity. Doctors pointed out that many patients given active medication correctly guessed they were not taking a dummy drug, which may have skewed the results. But as researchers continued to monitor the patients, more promising results started to appear. After a year there was some real evidence of improvements in both spasticity and disability. Study leader Dr John Zajicek, from the Peninsula Medical School in Devon, told the British Association Festival of Science at the University of Exeter: "We followed people up really expecting to generate safety data. "We found some evidence of a potential long-term effect, but we're having to be cautious. Initial results suggest that there may be more benefit over the longer term than was found over the first part of the study. "In the longer term, there is a suggestion of a more useful beneficial effect which was not clear at the initial stage. "I think the licensing authorities need to assess all the evidence and we need further studies before we have evidence of a really useful long-term effect." Multiple sclerosis is a disease that lasts decades. Dr Zajicek said meaningful investigations of new treatments for its chronic symptoms needed to last two or three years. He would not be drawn on details of the new results, but said some of the findings were consistent with the theory that cannabis compounds can prevent the death of nerve cells. The Cannabinoids in Multiple Sclerosis Research (CAMS) allocated MS patients capsules containing either a whole extract of cannabis, the active cannabis ingredient THC, or an inactive dummy substance. After the initial 15-week study, patients were taken off the capsules for a few days and then given the opportunity to recommence the same medication for up to a year. About 80% of them took up the offer. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years to treat a range of ailments, and Queen Victoria is reputed to have taken it for period pains. In the last 15 years scientists have discovered that substances similar to the cannabinoid compounds in the drug occur naturally in the brain.
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