New research into cannabis reveals groundbreaking treatment for psychosis, schizophrenia and certain personality disorders.
This week I’ve been looking into the potential use of cannabis as an anti-depressant and anti-psychosis treatment. The result of a recent trial has got me excited.
So in 2017 King’s College London published the findings of a clinical trial into the use of Marijuana as a new class of treatment for Psychosis, Schizophrenia and certain types of personality disorders.
The study showed that when Cannabidiol or CBD, the non-psychoactive component of ‘Weed’ is administered in controlled treatments it holds many therapeutic values. Research showed that when a controlled CBD Tincture was administered to 33 vulnerable patients during a series of case-studies, all patients showed a reduction in the amount of abnormal brain activity. In some cases the patients showed a controlled reduction in abnormal brain activity after just one dose. At the same time 19 healthy volunteers were administered a placebo and also received a brain scan, to measure brain activity.
And when they compared the brain scans of the two different groups, some of the medical patients who’d received the controlled CBD treatment displayed similar levels of abnormal brain activity as the volunteers, whose brain activity had been deemed healthy.
They say that around 15,000 people present with early symptoms of psychosis each year. But despite some really severe symptoms, there are no treatments that can be offered to patients at high risk of developing psychosis because the anti-psychotic drugs can have serious side-effects.
Dr. Bhattacharyya who is developing this research and conducting further trials said that, “One of the main advantages of cannabidiol is that it is safe and seems to be very well tolerated, making it in some ways an ideal treatment. If successful, this trial will provide definitive proof of cannabidiol’s role as an anti-psychotic treatment and pave the way for use in the clinic.”[1]
This may not be enough to convince everyone that medical marijuana is useful to so many, but it does set a very compelling precedent for future research and has compelled me to trial this method for myself. So stay tuned to hear how this form of #BreakingthelawtoBreathe helps me.
Either way, it for sure gives people like myself and my brother that suffer with anxiety and depression etc, a light to aim for.
Nyle Tasker-Jones
