Medical marijuana is safe and effective for elderly people with sleep problems

Medical marijuana eases pain, anxiety and sleep disorders in elderly people with neurological conditions, according to new research.

After just four months it helped those caused by chronic disorders including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease and spinal cord or nerve damage, the study said.

About seven in ten (69 percent) reported some improvement after taking cannabis for four months.

The researchers found it was safe and effective, and it also caused a third of patients to reduce their use of highly-addictive opioids, that have killed more than 200,000 Americans in the last eight years.

Study author Dr Laszlo Mechtler, of Dent Neurologic Institute in Buffalo, New York, said: ‘With legalization in many states, medical marijuana has become a popular treatment option among people with chronic diseases and disorders, yet there is limited research, especially in older people.

‘Our findings are promising and can help fuel further research into medical marijuana as an additional option for this group of people who often have chronic conditions.’

There is huge demand for researchers to investigate the drug which is increasingly popular among patients, but with little scientific literature to back up its benefits.

In New York, where Dr Mechtler is based, marijuana is legal for medical use.

And a recent report found that most of the state’s 98,000 medical marijuana users are aged 50 to 70.

To investigate how the drug impacts this age group, Dr Mechtler analyzed 204 over-75s, with an average age of 81, who were enrolled in New York State’s Medical Marijuana Program.

Participants took various amounts of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), the main ingredients in medical marijuana, for an average of four months and had regular checkups.

The former is the psychoactive compound in cannabis that makes users ‘high’, interacting with receptors in the central nervous system.

The latter does not have this effect, and is thought to help reduce anxiety and inflammation.

They were administered either in liquid form, as a capsule or in an electronic vaporiser.

Initially, a third (34 percent) of participants had side effects from the medical marijuana. But after an adjustment in dosage, this fell to a fifth (21 percent).

The most common were sleepiness (13 percent) followed by balance and gastrointestinal problems (each 7 percent).

Three per cent stopped taking the medical marijuana due to the side effects.

-Dailymail