- EXETER, England (Reuters)
- Cannabis-based treatments may have longer-term benefits for multiple
sclerosis patients, scientists said on Friday.
-
- The findings of a short, 15-week trial of MS patients
published last year were inconclusive because although patients reported
relief in muscle stiffness, rigidity and mobility, the findings could not
be confirmed by physiotherapists.
-
- But Dr John Zajicek, of the Peninsula Medical School
at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in southwestern England who
headed the study, told a conference there seemed to be further benefits
for patients who continued treatment for a year.
-
- "In the short term-study there was some evidence
of cannabinoids alleviating symptoms of multiple sclerosis; in the longer
term there is a suggestion of a more useful beneficial effect, which was
not clear at the initial stage," he said.
-
- Cannabis contains more than 60 different cannabinoids.
The most active is thought to be tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
-
- The 667 patients in the original study, which was
reported
in The Lancet medical journal, were given a cannabis extract or capsules
with a synthetic version of THC or a placebo for 15 weeks.
-
- About 80 percent of patients opted to continue the
treatments
for up to a year.
-
- "We have generated interesting results which suggest
there may be long-term benefits," Zajicek told a news conference at
the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science.
-
- But he added that more research is needed to confirm
the findings, which will be published later this year.
-
- MS, which affects about one million people worldwide,
is a disease in which immune system cells destroy the myelin sheath that
protects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
-
- Although cannabinoids have been used in medicine for
thousands of years, until recently there has been little scientific
evidence
of any therapeutic values.
-
- Last year, the Netherlands became the world's first
country
to make cannabis available as a prescription drug for cancer, HIV and MS.
In the United States it is used to treat weight loss in AIDS patients and
nausea and vomiting in cancer sufferers.
-
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