Tourette’s syndrome And Marijuana
Tourette’s Syndrome is one of the most commonly misunderstood medical conditions. Because of the fact that nobody knows the cause of Tourette’s syndrome, many people have come up with misleading information. From research, this disorder affects approximately one percent of the world’s population. As each year passes, more cases of people suffering from the disorder are reported. Because its cause is unknown, it has made it difficult for the establishment for its cure. Currently, the available treatments for the disorder are unsatisfactory and typically ineffective. However, within the last over 15 years, research has shown that Tourette’s patients respond positively when they use medical marijuana.
What is Tourette’s syndrome?
This disorder is neuropsychiatric and establishes itself during the early years of a child. It is hereditary and is characterized by the patient incurring repetitive jerking movements or using “socially unacceptable” speech.
How does marijuana help Tourette’s syndrome patients?
Research shows that marijuana can be beneficial to patients with this disease in the following ways:
l Decreasing tics’ frequencies
Not only has research advocated for the use of marijuana to help Tourette’s syndrome patients but also papers have been published advocating for the same. The research shows that some patients get total relief from tics upon the use of marijuana. Further research shows that a very little percentage of these patients go on to experience side effects, which are mild in that case. Health professionals think that marijuana helps to reduce tics the same way dystonia inducing conditions work.
l Increases the effectiveness of other drugs.
While medical professionals are working on creating treatment for TS victims from marijuana supplements, they are also looking at the chance that marijuana could work alongside other drugs in helping TS victims. In a research conducted several years back, it was established that cannabinoids and nicotine serve to positively enhance how neuroleptics work in treating several diseases including Tourette’s syndrome. It can therefore be conclude that marijuana can serve to enhance how other TS drugs work in the patient’s body.
l Help in solving insomnia case
Patients who suffer from Tourette’s syndrome also stand a high chance of suffering from insomnia. TS causes the patient to suffer from sleep latency, which is a condition where the patients has delayed sleep onset. Cannabis on the other hand has proved that it can lessen this condition of sleep latency. In that case, it makes it (cannabis) a perfect candidate that can help patients with TS. Marijuana can help the patient get more sleep faster thereby solving the insomnia problem.
l Anxiolytic
Many people who suffer from Tourette syndrome are often anxious. Though extensive research do not show how exactly marijuana helps in solving this conditions, many anecdotal reports show that TS patients have significant improvement in their anxiety levels after taking marijuana. If anything, in the United States, there is a brand of medical marijuana drugs that are meant specifically for TS patients in order to reduce their anxiety levels.
Other ways through which marijuana can help Tourette’s syndrome patients is by reducing their aggressive levels and reduces their obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Conclusion
Tourette’s syndrome is a hereditary disorder that affects people from a young age. Its characteristics include the patients becomes aggressive and experience regular jerking movements. While there has not been proper treatment for the disorder, marijuana has gone a long way in trying to help patients who suffer from this disorder.
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