A recent study conducted by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center has concluded that medical cannabis can be a safe and significant treatment option for many symptoms of autism spectrum disorders in patients ages 18 and under. These symptoms include seizures, tics, depression, restlessness and even \u201crage attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the\u00a0study<\/a>, which monitored just under 200 Israelis under the age of 18, revealed remarkable information even\u00a0Alex Berenson<\/a>\u00a0might have trouble disputing: Over 80 percent of the participants who were treated for six months showed either significant or moderate improvement, according to Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute. Less than 10 percent of participants experienced no noticeable effect from cannabis. And how many reported negative effects? A big ol\u2019 zero.<\/p>\n Israel has a far more substantial history of cannabis research than the United States. In 1964, Israeli doctor\u00a0Ralphael Mechoulam<\/a>\u00a0and his team of researchers changed the course of cannabis history by\u00a0identifying the THC molecule<\/a>, and the country has\u00a0paved the way<\/a>\u00a0for cannabis research ever since.<\/p>\n Their progress hasn\u2019t slowed; In 2014, for instance, Israel officially sanctioned medical cannabis to treat pediatric epilepsy. There are currently over 35,000 patients approved for medical cannabis use in Israel, and nearly half receive cannabis through the preeminent organization\u00a0Tikkun Olam<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet when it comes to autism, the researchers from BGU and Soroka University recognized that \u201cthere is a significant lack of knowledge regarding the safety profile and the specific symptoms that are most likely to improve under cannabis treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n Autism was of particular concern to the Israeli team because recent reports have shown a significant increase in autism rates in the past three decades; according to the Center for Disease Control, in the United States,\u00a0roughly one in every 68 children<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. has autism, (though other sources have suggested that this data primarily reflects\u00a0changing criteria<\/a>\u00a0for defining the condition.)<\/p>\n To complete their study, 188 participants \u2014 with an average age of 13 years, and 14 patients under the age of 5 \u2014 were given three daily doses of a CBD oil that contained trace amounts of THC. Beyond the general improvement statistics, mentioned above, other observations were equally compelling; As the team wrote, \u201cbehavioural outbreaks were improved in 61 percent of patients, communication problems in 47 percent, anxiety in 39 percent, stress in 33 percent and disruptive behaviour in 33 percent of the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n This data also translated to other positive and concrete changes in the participants\u2019 quality of life. For instance, before starting treatment, 42 percent of parents said their children generally displayed a positive mood; after six months of treatment, that number rose to 63.5 percent. Participants\u2019 ability to dress and bathe themselves independently also improved, from 26.4 percent to 43 percent. Additionally, parents who described their children as sleeping well rose from 3 percent to nearly 25 percent. Most impressively, at the beginning of the study none of the parents reported that their children were able to concentrate; after the six-month study that number rose to 14 percent.<\/p>\n The CBD treatment also resulted in over a third of the patients lowering their intake of antipsychotics, antidepressants, sedatives and more.<\/p>\n The researchers made no attempts to cover up the side effects of the treatment, but those effects, which appeared only in a handful of several participants \u2014 sleepiness, not liking the taste and smell of the oil, restlessness, reflux and lack of appetite \u2014 seem almost laughably benign, especially in the face of such a resounding success.<\/p>\n Hopefully this study will serve to move cannabis research forward, both in Israel and across the world; it is only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, what other medical cannabis research would you like to see conducted?<\/p>\n The post Israeli Study Links Medical Cannabis to Symptom Relief for Children with Autism<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A recent study conducted by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center has concluded that medical cannabis can be a safe and significant treatment option for many symptoms of autism spectrum disorders in patients ages 18 and under. These symptoms include seizures, tics, depression, restlessness andContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1044,7497,7498,7499,50,133,7456,53,139,7500,7501,420,7502],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32690,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32689\/revisions\/32690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Legacy of Medical Research
<\/b><\/h4>\nAn Array of Relief<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Israeli Study Links Medical Cannabis to Symptom Relief for Children with Autism<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"