Marijuana Compound Effective In Treating Tourette's Syndrome, Study Says

From: industry sources
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2003 11:22 AM

Hanover, Germany: A primary compound in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is effective in reducing "tics" in patients suffering from Tourette's Syndrome (TS), according to clinical trail data published in a recent edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Tourette's Syndrome is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by motor tics (sudden spasms especially in the facial muscles, neck and shoulders) and one or more vocal tics.

Twenty-four patients participated in the double-blind placebo-controlled trial over a period of six weeks. Treatment with up to 10 mg of THC resulted in significant improvement of tic severity, authors wrote. No serious adverse effects to the treatment were reported.

In a separate article published in Neuropsychopharmacology, authors elaborated, "No detrimental effect was seen on learning curve, interference, recall and recognition of word lists, immediate visual memory span, and divided attention" from THC during or after the treatment.

The 24-patient study confirmed previous smaller patient trials that also found THC to be effective in the treatment of tics and behavioral problems in patients with Tourette's Syndrome.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, "Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is effective in the treatment of tics in Tourette syndrome: a 6-week randomized trial," appears in Vol. 64 (No. 4) of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Abstracts of the Neuropsychopharmacology article, "Treatment of Tourette syndrome with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol: no influence on neuropsychological performance," are available online via the PubMed search engine at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.