{"id":11108,"date":"2022-12-31T21:14:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T21:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/three-new-studies-on-cannabis-and-ptsd\/"},"modified":"2022-12-31T21:14:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T21:14:12","slug":"three-new-studies-on-cannabis-and-ptsd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/three-new-studies-on-cannabis-and-ptsd\/","title":{"rendered":"Three New Studies on Cannabis and PTSD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div property=\"content:encoded\">\n<p>In recent years, psilocybin and <span class=\"caps\">MDMA<\/span> have been explored as potential treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, but somewhat more quietly so has cannabis. In fact, according to a few quick searches of PubMed, cannabis has a longer and richer association with <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> in the scientific literature than any psychedelic. Though you wouldn\u2019t know that by reading the headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Setting aside for a minute how effective psychedelics may or may not be as breakthrough treatments for <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span>, there\u2019s no doubt that cannabis is still much easier for most patients to access.<\/p>\n<p>Recent research \u2013 including three new studies (from three different countries) \u2013 suggests that growing numbers of <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> sufferers are medicating with cannabis, and truly finding it helpful.<\/p>\n<h2>Depression Drives Cannabis Use<\/h2>\n<p>First, a paper in the journal <em><span class=\"caps\">BMC<\/span> Psychiatry<\/em><sup id=\"fnref:1\">1<\/sup> from researchers based in Ontario, Canada, provides some insight into cannabis use among <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> patients during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Between April 3 and June 24 of 2020, 462 individuals with self-reported <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> completed an online questionnaire that assessed mental health symptoms and cannabis intake both before the pandemic and in the seven days prior to filling out the survey.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-right\">\n<p>Worsening depression during the pandemic led to greater cannabis use.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Stress, anxiety, and depression worsened across the board, but by categorizing participants according to cannabis use patterns \u2013 not using, using less, using the same, or using more \u2013 the researchers discovered something interesting. <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> sufferers who increased their cannabis use during the pandemic were more likely to also experience \u201cmeaningful perceived worsening of depression symptoms,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n<p>Does this mean that cannabis exacerbated depression? It\u2019s theoretically possible, given that the study does not address causality. However, much more likely given what previous research has shown about the relationship between cannabis and depression<sup id=\"fnref:2\">2<\/sup> is that it went the other way: worsening depression led to greater cannabis use. In other words, these individuals were likely suffering during the pandemic and using cannabis to make themselves feel better.<\/p>\n<p>The extent to which cannabis actually helped, if at all, is beyond the scope of this research \u2013 but another recent study with a slightly different design tackles that question more directly.<\/p>\n<h2>Cannabis May Improve Quality of Life in <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> Patients<\/h2>\n<p>In the <span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span>, individuals diagnosed with <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> can be prescribed medical cannabis. Yet a paucity of clinical evidence limits its use, write the London-based authors of a December 2022 paper in the journal <em>Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics.<\/em><sup id=\"fnref:3\">3<\/sup> So they designed a study that would use patient responses to validated questionnaires to measure changes in sleep quality, anxiety, and <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span>-specific symptoms (intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal) over time.<\/p>\n<p>By comparing scores from 144 <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> patients at baseline and one, three, and six months after initiating medical cannabis use, the researchers observed significant improvements in all three categories across all follow-up periods. Adverse events related to cannabis use were predominately mild or moderate, with insomnia and fatigue being most common at 20 incidents each.<\/p>\n<p>This study also has numerous limitations. It is observational in nature, leaving many variables uncontrolled and others, including dose size and frequency, reliant on participant reporting. In addition, all outcome measures are subjective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNevertheless, this study can serve to inform future randomized placebo-controlled trials with the aim of confirming these promising effects, whilst informing current clinical practice,\u201d the authors write. \u201cFuture work should also focus on including objective measures, determining optimal dosages, and conducting comparisons to existing treatments to better inform prescribing of add-on or sole [medical cannabis] therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\"><\/div>\n<h2>Cannabis Helps <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> Patients Sleep Better<\/h2>\n<p>Improved sleep quality may be an important mechanism through which cannabis reduces <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> symptoms during daytime and nighttime alike, posit the Israel-based authors of a paper published in the December 2022 issue of the\u00a0<em>Journal of Anxiety Disorders.<\/em><sup id=\"fnref:4\">4<\/sup> To learn more about how cannabis use affects sleep, they asked 77 licensed medical cannabis patients suffering from <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> to report each morning on the timing of cannabis use the previous evening and subsequent sleep disturbances during the night.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-right\">\n<p>The closer to bedtime an individual used cannabis, the less likely they were to experience nightmares.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Interestingly, the closer to bedtime an individual used cannabis, the less likely they were to experience nightmares \u2013 which may in turn translate to reduced daytime stress.<\/p>\n<p>The authors\u2019 analysis also revealed that those who used products with higher <span class=\"caps\">CBD<\/span> concentrations (primarily smoked flower, but not exclusively) reported fewer early awakenings, and thus longer sleep. Number of nightly awakenings, the third outcome variable measured, was not associated with any aspect of cannabis use \u2013 though the researchers did find that those who went to bed later reported fewer awakenings.<\/p>\n<p>This is a small study that again lacks controls and relies on self-reporting, yet it adds to a growing body of clinical and preclinical research suggesting beneficial effects of cannabis for post-traumatic stress disorder \u2013 in this case via improved sleep. As the authors put it in concluding their own paper, \u201cGiven the high comorbidity of <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> symptoms and sleep disturbances and the potential for medical cannabis to have effects on both, a greater understanding of how patients experience the effects of medical cannabis on overall <span class=\"caps\">PTSD<\/span> symptoms and sleep disturbances is warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>Nate Seltenrich, an independent science journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, covers a wide range of subjects including environmental health, neuroscience, and pharmacology. Copyright, Project <span class=\"caps\">CBD<\/span>. May not be reprinted without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h2>Footnotes<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectcbd.org\/new-studies-cannabis-ptsd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, psilocybin and MDMA have been explored as potential treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, but somewhat more quietly so has cannabis. In fact, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimatehealthreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}