FWD: Health Day News-Cannabis-based Drug Eases Arthritis Pain

RSD In the News : FWD: Health Day News-Cannabis-based Drug Eases Arthritis Pain
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From: byrd45 (Original Message) Sent: 12/1/2005 8:18 AM
Cannabis-based Drug Eases Arthritis Pain

(we reported on this the other day. See the article weburl below )
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) -- The first-ever study focused on a cannabis-based medicine aimed at easing the pain of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) finds it may help suppress the disease.

The results are "encouraging, with overall improvements in pain on movement and at rest, improvement in the quality of sleep and improvement in the overall condition of the patients' arthritis," researcher Dr. Ronald Jubb, a consultant rheumatologist at University Hospital Birmingham, in England, said in a prepared statement.

As reported online Wednesday in the journal Rheumatology, the small, five-week study included 31 RA patients who received the cannabis-based medicine Sativex and 27 RA patients who received a placebo. Patients in the study could self-administer Sativex -- an oral spray -- up to a maximum of six doses a day.

Side effects experienced by those on the cannabis-based medicine were mostly mild to moderate, including dizziness, light-headedness, dry mouth and nausea.

The researchers concluded that the findings of this small study warrant a larger trial to study in more detail the effects of cannabis-based therapies on RA.

-- Robert Preidt



See http://www.rsdhope.org/Showpage.asp?PAGE_ID=33&PGCT_ID=3272