Medical Marijuana Might Have Benefits for PTSD Patients
By Sam Gossard. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.
People with a history of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)––including concussions––are 1.5 more likely to develop PTSD than those without, possibly due to the consequences of the injury (physical, emotional, or sleep symptoms and life after the injury), the event that caused the injury, or both. Informed and effective treatment is essential to recovery from both concussions and PTSD. Researchers have been studying cannabis as a possible avenue for alleviating symptoms of both concussions and PTSD.
A new pilot study from researchers Viddiparti et al. found that, over a 70-day period, medical marijuana use in 15 study participants significantly improved PTSD symptom severity and also produced a significant reduction in nightmares. Results published in Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids also included “increased duration of sleep hours, sleep quality, sleep efficiency.” While the study did not directly evaluate concussion patients, its results could be relevant to those who need treatment for both concussion and PTSD.
Over 70 days, in a single-arm pilot study done at the University of Florida, researchers tracked 15 adults who were diagnosed with PTSD and had decided to begin the medical use of marijuana to treat their symptoms. The goal of the study, published in Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids, was to expand the body of research on cannabis as a treatment for symptoms of PTSD, which is understudied despite cannabis already being approved as a treatment for PTSD in many states.
The researchers used four self-reported questionnaires to establish a baseline of PTSD symptoms. The same questionnaires were administered to participants 30 and 70 days after starting treatment. Vaddiparti et al. found that the score on the PCL-5 (a survey on the symptoms of PTSD) throughout the 70 days dropped from 49.6 to 29. The cutoff for diagnosing someone on the PCL-5 is 33, and a higher score means more severe PTSD. Therefore, at 70 days after starting treatment, the participants had an average below what would be deemed as clinical PTSD.
Moreover, nightmares significantly dropped over the trial, although nightmares “did not show significant improvement until day 70.” Critically, there have been, to date, minimal treatments for nightmares experienced by people with PTSD. Sleep duration and sleep quality also improved throughout the trial.
This study will hopefully direct more attention to cannabis as a possible treatment for symptoms of PTSD, especially relating to sleep. This study had limited participants and no control group, meaning that a placebo effect may have influenced the results. It is clear that more research needs to be done on the effects of cannabis to t
