Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is showing improvement through cannabis treatments
For decades there has been evidence that cannabis could be beneficial for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, the evidence was mostly anecdotal, lacking any hard scientific studies. However, that is changing, thanks to the stubbornness of researchers who fought the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in order to be able to study the impact more seriously.
It took ten years, but researchers have finally been able to convince the DEA to approve studies that will use US government-supplied marijuana and a research protocol approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
PTSD isn’t just related to those who have served in combat. It can surface out of a variety of incidents, including sexual abuse and assault. It reportedly affects as many as eight million American adults and, contrary to common belief, the majority of those dealing with PTSD have never been in military conflict.
Melanie Nakashian, founder of Survivors for Cannabis, explains, “There’s been a good deal of attention paid to cannabis for combat vets with PTSD over the last five years, which is great and has taught us a lot while spurring more research. But there’s also been a big missing part of the conversation. And in the meantime, the stigma people face as both survivors of sexual trauma and as cannabis consumers can leave them feeling isolated, marginalized, and shamed.”
Nakashian points out that many PTSD sufferers report significant improvement from consuming cannabis. They indicate that it has helped to rid them of depression, anxiety and insomnia, among other symptoms. However, now that the DEA and FDA are on board, the ability to launch deeper studies will be possible in order to further understand how incredibly beneficial mother nature’s plant really is.
