Merritt JC, Crawford WJ, Alexander PC, Anduze AL, Gelbart SS: Effect of marihuana on intraocular and blood pressure in glaucoma. Ophthalmology 1980; 87:222-28 Chang AE, Schilling DJ, Stillman RC, Et Al: Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol as an antiemetic in cancer patients receiving high dose methotrexate. Ann Intern Med 1979; 91:819-24 Ungerleider JT; Andrysiak T: Therapeutic issues of marijuana and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Int J Addict 1985 May; 20(5):691-9 I obtained these citations from the Pilot Drug Evaluation Staff Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Food and Drug Administration HFD-007 Rockville, MD 20857 Ask for the PDES Master Bibliography Marijuana/THC, Therapeutic Uses (9 pages with abstracts) Tod Mikuriya, M.D. ============================================================================= From: ebrandt@jarthur.cs.hmc.edu (Eli Brandt) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Re: Medicinal Uses of Cannabis Date: 17 Nov 1993 05:52:53 GMT Message-ID: <2cce7l$d2q@jaws.cs.hmc.edu> In article , Ben Chesley wrote: >Besides the calming of nerves I really can't think of alltogether >too many other uses... I could be wrong though, but those are the most >well known. Here's something I posted somewhere else: -------------------- [somebody else said something] [I said:] The claim is something of an overstatement, mostly in the word "proven". However, it's nowhere near as whacked-out as you might think. I hate to inject a truckload of references, but actually I don't. So here you go. Nausea: pretty well known; I'll list a only few refs. Vinciguerra, Moore and Brennan, "Inhalation Marijuana as an Anti-emetic for Cancer Chemotherapy", NY State J. Med. 88 (Oct 1988): 525-527. [78 percent of 56 patients with nausea resistant to standard drugs became symptom-free] Chang et al., "Delta-9-THC as an Antiemetic in Cancer Patients Receiving High-dose Methotrexate", Ann. Internal Med. 91 (1979): 819-824. [smoked THC more effective than oral, among other findings] Doblin and Kleiman, "Marihuana as Anti-emetic Medicine: A Survey of Oncologists' Attitudes and Experiences", J. Clin. Oncology 9 (191): 1275-1280. [44% had recommended illegal use of marijuana; half would prescribe it if it were legal] Glaucoma: Hepler and Frank, "Marihuana Smoking and Intraocular Pressure", JAMA 217 (1971): 1392. [reduces IOP in patients with glaucoma] Hepler, Frank, and Petrus, "Ocular Effects of Marijuana Smoking", in _The Pharmacology of Marijuana_, ed. Braude and Szara. (NY: Raven, 1976), vol.2: 815-824. [no tolerance to IOP effect apparent over 94-day study] Multiple sclerosis: (mostly case studies) Clifford, "THC for Tremor in Multiple Sclerosis", Ann. Neurology 13 (1983): 669-671. [case study of treatment of resistant and disabling tremor] Meinck et al., "Effects of Cannabinoids on Spasticity and Ataxia in Multiple Sclerosis", J. Neurology 236 (1989): 120-122. [case study of marijuana for "motor and sexual handicaps"] Lyman et al., "Delta-9-THC: A Novel Treatment for Experimental Autoimmune Encephalitis", J. Neuroimmunology 23 (1989): 73-81. [THC increased survival of this MS model from 2% (placebo) to 95%. May *prevent* progression of MS!] AIDS: (effects on appetite are well known) Migraines: primarily anecdotal reports, but see: Volfe, Dvilansky, and Nathan, "Cannabinoids Block Release of Serotonic from Platelets Induced by Plasma from Migraine Patients", Int'l. J. Clin. and Pharm. Res. 5 (1985): 243-246. "spasms": (also speculative) Malec, Harvey, and Cayner, "Cannabis Effect on Spasticity in Spinal Cord Injury", Arch. Physical and Med. Rehab. 63 (March 1982): 116-118. [half of the patients surveyed used marijuana for muscle spasms] Maurer et al., "Delta-9-THC Shows Antispastic and Analgesic Effects in a Single Case Double-Blind Trial", Eur. Arch. Psychiatry and Clin. Neurosci. 240 (1990): 1-4. [oral THC comparable in efficacy to codeine, but more effective at reducing muscle spasms] labor pains: anecdotal, unless you consider nineteenth-century use. But as to analgesia in general: Noyes, Brunk, Avery, and Canter, "The Analgesic Properties of Delta-9-THC and Codeine", Clin. Pharm. and Therapeutics 18 (1975): 84-89. [20 mg THC approximately as effective as 120 mg codeine in patients with advanced cancer] Milstein, MacCannel, Karr, and Clark: "Marijuana-produced Changes in Pain Tolerance: Experienced and Non-experience Subjects", Int'l. Pharmacopsychiatry 10 (1975): 177-182. [analgesic effect greater in more experienced users] > I have heard of its benefits in relieving SOME pain, but I find the claim >that it might help asthma to be pretty laughable. Laugh not; THC is an effective bronchodilator. Of course, smoking plants is probably less than optimal for asthmatics. Inhalation would be better, but THC itself appears to be an irritant by this route. Smoked THC vs. inhaled isoproterenol: Tashkin et al., "Effects of Smoked Marijuana in Experimentally Induced Asthma", Amer. Rvw. of Respiratory Disease 112 (1975): 377-386. [smoked THC had slower, longer effect] Inhaled THC vs. isoproterenol: Vachon et al., "Airways response to Aerosolized Delta-9-THC: Preliminary Report", in _The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana_, ed. Cohen and Stillman. [inhaled THC had faster, shorter effect] The flyer in question didn't mention epilepsy, but I'll throw that in: Davis and Ramsey, "Antiepileptic Action of Marijuana-Active Substances", Federation Proceedings 8 (1949): 284-285. [2 of 5 cases of severe anticonvulsant-resistant grand mal epilepsy controlled] Consroe, Wood, and Buchsbaum, "Anticonvulsant Nature of Marijuana Smoking", JAMA 234 (1975): 306-307. [case study: marijuana effective as adjunct to phenytoin and phenobarbital] Cunha, Carlini, Periera, et al., "Chronic Administration of Cannabidiol to Healthy Volunteers and Epileptic Patients", Pharmacology 21 (1980): 175-185. [cannabidiol effective as adjunct to antiepileptic drugs] The above cites are mostly from Grinspoon and Bakalar, _Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine_. I've only read a few of the referenced articles, so I'm going by their commentary for the most part. >You can find such an example of this on the Shamen's album "Boss >Drum." The cut "Natural States" is an interview with someone bombed >out of their gourd, blabbering on and on about something which >probably makes complete sense to them, but is sheer nonsense to >anyone in full possession of thier senses. Would that be the Tim Leary track? :-) PGP 2 key by finger or e-mail Eli ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu