Smoking marijuana can help multiple sclerosis patients

Smoking marijuana may help relieve the muscle tightness and pain of multiple sclerosis, Thestar.com reported, citing a US study.


Many people with MS often suffer from spasticity, an uncomfortable and disabling condition in which the muscles become tight and difficult to control. Spasticity can be controlled with medications but the symptoms may continue or the anti-spasticity drugs may carry adverse effects such as drowsiness, sedation, and muscle weakness.

Most trials testing medical marijuana have focused on oral forms.


Now a randomized trial has put smoked cannabis to the test against placebo for 30 people with MS whose spasticity resisted treatment.


"Using an objective measure, we saw a beneficial effect of inhaled cannabis on spasticity among patients receiving insufficient relief from traditional treatment," Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, of the department of neuroscience at University of California, San Diego and her co-authors concluded in Monday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.


"Smoked cannabis was superior to placebo in symptom and pain reduction in participants with treatment-resistant spasticity."


In the study, the average age of participants was 50 and 63 per cent were female. More than half of the participants needed walking aids and 20 per cent used wheelchairs.


An examiner who did not know which treatment the subjects received assessed the intensity of muscle tone for all participants.