Cannabis as a Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Updated: May 9, 2022
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is characterized because people who suffer from it are affected even after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event, a condition that can last for months or even years with consequences that can cause intense emotional and physical reactions, which is why specialists in this area of health are determined to seek treatments that help people who suffer from this disorder.
That is why the American foundation Battle Brothers, dedicated to helping military veterans who served the United States Armed Forces by directly serving in combat or war, together with NiaMedic, an Israeli-American research company1, received approval to conduct an observational study on the use of medical cannabis as a treatment to combat PTSD, the study will determine whether treatment with cannabis will bring benefits in reducing the symptoms of patients with this disorder.
The two aforementioned groups promoting the research received the relevant approval in order to ensure that the studies and research are fully ethical.
In this research, 60 military veterans diagnosed with moderate or severe PTSD will be enrolled, where each patient will evaluate each product according to their own criteria based on what they experienced during the treatment, after that they will be followed up for 90 days in order to evaluate the effectiveness of cannabis and how it affects them; they will only be offered cannabis products already legally available in the California market and will also be monitored in order to detect any negative effects that it may produce2.
What is wanted, based on the belief of personal experiences that indicate that cannabis can alleviate the symptoms is to improve the quality of life of people with this disorder, including military veterans, because according to studies done by the Battle Brothers Foundation 22 of them die due to the effects of post-traumatic stress caused by war, and according to studies by the National Institute of Health the rate of PTSD among members returning from war varies depending on the type of war and time.
Thus, this non-profit foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life of ex-combatants, is determined to prove the effectiveness of cannabis in the treatment of PTSD.
Sources: battlebrothersfoundation.org