Deans' stroke musings: A preliminary controlled study to determine whether whole-plant cannabis extracts can improve intractable neurogenic symptoms

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

A preliminary controlled study to determine whether whole-plant cannabis extracts can improve intractable neurogenic symptoms

Only 11 years old and we still have not seen this in any stroke protocol. Why hasn't your doctor tried this for your spasticity? Stupidity? Laziness?
http://cre.sagepub.com/content/17/1/21.short

Derick T Wade
1. Oxford Centre for Enablement, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK

Philip Robson
1. Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK

Heather House

Petra Makela

Julia Aram
1. Oxford Centre for Enablement, Windmill Road, Oxford, UK

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether plant-derived cannabis medicinal extracts (CME) can alleviate neurogenic symptoms unresponsive to standard treatment, and to quantify adverse effects.

Design: A consecutive series of double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled single-patient cross-over trials with two-week treatment periods.

Setting: Patients attended as outpatients, but took the CME at home.

Subjects: Twenty-four patients with multiple sclerosis (18), spinal cord injury (4), brachial plexus damage (1), and limb amputation due to neurofibromatosis (1).

Intervention: Whole-plant extracts of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), 1:1 CBD:THC, or matched placebo were self-administered by sublingual spray at doses determined by titration against symptom relief or unwanted effects within the range of 2.5–120 mg/24 hours.

Measures used: Patients recorded symptom, well-being and intoxication scores on a daily basis using visual analogue scales. At the end of each two-week period an observer rated severity and frequency of symptoms on numerical rating scales, administered standard measures of disability (Barthel Index), mood and cognition, and recorded adverse events.

Results: Pain relief associated with both THC and CBD was significantly superior to placebo. Impaired bladder control, muscle spasms and spasticity were improved by CME in some patients with these symptoms. Three patients had transient hypotension and intoxication with rapid initial dosing of THC-containing CME.

Conclusions: Cannabis medicinal extracts can improve neurogenic symptoms unresponsive to standard treatments. Unwanted effects are predictable and generally well tolerated. Larger scale studies are warranted to confirm these findings.