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Weed For PTSD?

Non-Profit Organization Kicks Off Study

By Christina St-JeanPublished 7 years ago 2 min read
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, most commonly known as PTSD, has long plagued veterans. Whether it's flashbacks, nightmares, or something more sinister, PTSD has been a definite mental health problem that veterans have dealt with for decades; in the early 1900s, the closest thing to PTSD would have been what was commonly known back then as shell shock. Shortly after that, it was known as that or battle fatigue, and then PTSD became the standard term for anyone who deals with the burden of trying to cope with what may have been seen in an operational theater such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

Word of a brand new study looking at marijuana as a support for those with PTSD by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, could offer some hope for those who have been struggling with the condition. The study will use four different potency levels to look at how marijuana could potentially be of use to those veterans who are coping with the condition.

Kayla Carnevale, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2001, said she's noticed a real difference since she started taking medical marijuana after being diagnosed with PTSD by the VA. She reported that she wasn't waking up to bad nightmares, and rather than waking up with what she termed "excruciating pain," she felt good.

The VA has been under pressure to prescribe fewer drugs such as painkillers due to addiction and overdose issues, and can't participate in research studies about marijuana as a viable treatment for PTSD because they are simply banned from doing so by federal agencies.

The sample size for the study is quite small - 76 patients between Phoenix, Arizona and Baltimore, Maryland - but anything gleaned from such a study might open the gates for larger studies into the feasibility of actually prescribing medical marijuana to treat PTSD.

Dr. Sue Sisley said that the study has been languishing through bureaucracy for the last six years, waiting for various approvals to come through while struggling with finding actual properties that would support the study. Dan Schmink, a veteran, acknowledged the significant impact that medical marijuana has had on his life.

"Say, a car backfiring or walking into a crowd, things that would never affect me triggered responses that I had in combat," said Schmink. "It (medical marijuana) has been life-changing. Very life-changing."

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About the Creator

Christina St-Jean

I'm a high school English and French teacher who trains in the martial arts and works towards continuous self-improvement.

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