A new PTSD study on marijuana has revealed some interesting things.
Preliminary results from a study of veterans who use marijuana to manage their PTSD symtpoms has found indifferent results.
While results indicate that cannabis appears to be a safe and well-tolerated treatment for patients managing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the researchers also did not find strong signals of effectiveness.
Marcel Bonn-Miller of the University of Pennsylvania and Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute led the study, which was funded by a $2.2 million grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
The researchers fought for seven years to obtain approval to conduct the study, and it took three more years to carry it out.
There were 76 military veterans with PTSD involved in the study and most were men aged between 24 and 77.
Bonn-Miller and Sisley established a two-phase study; the results of the first phase were published recently in the PLOS One paper.
In the first phase, the 76 veterans were divided into four cohorts where one group self-administered cannabis with 12% THC over three weeks and another group received an 11% CBD product with minimal THC.
The third group received a balanced THC-CBD product, with roughly 8% THC and 8% CBD. A fourth group received a placebo with almost zero active cannabinoids.
Participants were given 1.8 grams per day for 21 days.
Researchers unfortunately found little statistical difference between veterans who took the placebo and those given the THC and CBD mixtures.
The researchers wrote, “The study sample included participants with a history of cannabis use. The recruitment of active cannabis users might have increased the potential for biased responding. Given the topical nature of the current trial and its relevance for public policy on medical cannabis, participants might have been biased to report positive effects regardless of condition. Despite many participants already having experience with the drug, nearly half of those receiving placebo believed that they received active cannabis. Prior expectations about cannabis’ effects might explain why even those in the placebo condition reported larger than average reductions in PTSD symptoms after only 3 weeks of treatment.”
