As per a new study, people suffering from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are less dependent on prescription drugs when their medical marijuana intake is high. They barely feel the need for powerful psychostimulants when on medical cannabis.
This is good news as many of these Psychostimulants are habit-forming and may also result in side effects in patients.
The study published in Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal in the month of January has a lot to reveal about the effects of medical marijuana in ADHD patients.
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The study highlighted that patients who take medical marijuana components such as cannabinoids and terpenes also reported halting the prescription medications as they no longer felt the need for taking them.
Cannabinoid CBN which is present only in traces in the plant seems to promise the best results to ADHD patients. However, there is still a need to conduct more studies in order to understand the mechanism entirely.
“If the studies prove promising results, then cannabis constituents can become a workable ADHD treatment. Further, additional studies can establish the potential beneficial effects of medical marijuana in easing the symptoms in ADHD patients.”
Studying the severity of effects still needs to be done and this can be established from prospective studies. Researchers concluded that there is a need to validate the results in order to make medical cannabis an approved medication for ADHD. This can be possible in states where medical cannabis is legal.
The research team carried data collection from 53 Israeli patients who had been diagnosed with ADHD. They agreed to participate in the survey and share their results with medical cannabis treatment.
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37 out of 53 patients suffered from some mental health conditions. The participants reported their monthly doses and shared the way they consumed cannabis. They also furnished details about the manufacturer, cultivator, and strain details. The data was collected between October 2019 and January 2020.
This research study is a departure from the previous studies conducted on studying the effect of cannabis on ADHD patients.
Previous studies conducted considered cannabis as a single product in the research and disregarded its complexities and variability between cultivators. Most patients have procured licenses for using medical cannabis for cancer treatment or chronic pain.
They haven’t obtained the licenses especially for the treatment of neurological disorders that can co-exist with ADHD.
47 patients who participated in the study reported that they either vaporized or smoked medical cannabis.
The patients were divided into two subgroups: low and high dose. Cultivar combinations used were quite complicated; 27 different combinations of varieties were used by the patients.
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Apart from CBN, the cannabinoids linked to the reduction or elimination of ADHD medication were CBD, THCV and THC.
The researchers claim that it is still unclear about how terpenes and cannabinoids modulate the circuitry involved in comorbid psychiatric conditions and in ADHD. However, the study did stress on finding proper cultivar and dose combination. This would demand significant experimentation.
Patients in Israel have reliable access to regulated cultivars in comparison to patients anywhere else in the world. This hints that patients in other regions and in America still have a long way to go in utilizing and understanding the effects of CBD and THC.
