Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, or series of traumatic events. The resulting effects can be debilitating and lead folks to a number of hurdles in their everyday life. However, as cannabis continues to offer relief for a number of medical conditions, it appears that the plant medicine could also work to help those with PTSD.
Namely, Karen Julia developed delayed onset PTSD in 2012 when she was 34 years old and, since starting medical cannabis treatments, she has been “given her life back,” the Mirror reports.
After a difficult childhood and being made homeless at 15, Julia successfully divorced her parents, following a “lifetime of neglect and abuse.” She found solace in photography, though it wasn’t until years later that she found her trauma was “seriously impacting” her life. The worst symptom involved severe sleep disturbances, a common issue for those with PTSD.
“I was like a ball of adrenaline and would be wide awake at the slightest sound at night,” Julia said. “The sleep deprivation was terrible. It had a profound effect on my personal and professional life. I was exhausted and struggling to work.”
Standard prescriptions of antidepressants, according to Julia, made her feel like she was masking the symptoms rather than directly treating her PTSD. She was losing hope after trying medications for nearly a decade, though she decided to look into medical cannabis oil after trying the maximum dose of CBD oil and noticing some relief.
As a citizen of the U.K., folks can legally obtain cannabis oil through a prescription via private U.K. clinics, but only after they’ve exhausted a range of NHS first-line therapies and treatments.
Julia said that she feels like a different person and that she’s “never felt better” after starting treatment with cannabis oil, also nodding to the lack of side effects.
“I thought medical cannabis would make me feel high and negatively impact my work, but I actually feel a sense of calm,” she said.
Mirror also reports that the UK Medical Cannabis Registry presented 20 new research papers at the International Cannabinoid Research Society conference last month, covering a wide range of conditions including PTSD. One paper reviewed data from 162 PTSD patients who were given a daily dose of 5mg of CBD and 145mg of THC, assessing outcomes at one, three and six months.
The results showed that all patients noted a significant improvement in their PTSD, anxiety and sleep quality.
A similar study was published in the U.S. in April, revealing that over 12 months, all 150 participants reported a decrease in the severity of their PTSD symptoms and were 2.57 times more likely to recover than patients who didn’t use cannabis.
Yet another study, out of Israel, published earlier this year evaluated the safety and efficacy of treating PTSD with medical cannabis. This study ultimately found that more than two-thirds of patients reported at least moderate improvement without serious side effects, and 90.8% of treated PTSD patients were classified as “therapeutic successes” after six months.
But how exactly does cannabis work to treat the symptoms of PTSD? Sapphire Clinics Lead Psychiatrist Dr. James Rucker expands on the science behind these studies, and even Julia’s anecdotal experience, with Mirror:
“It’s really all about the fact that an area of the brain which mediates our fight or flight response, called the amygdala, is overactive almost constantly and highly sensitive in people with PTSD,” Rucker said.
Additionally, Rucker said that emerging research shows that cannabis dampens this part of the brain, and in turn, the primary symptoms of PTSD, like fear and anxiety, are reduced. That action results in a patient’s ability to face the things they might have previously avoided because it was a potential trigger. From there, patients can begin to face those triggering attributes more frequently, without the same debilitating PTSD symptoms, and think of them in different light.
Rucker also highlighted the need for medical legitimacy in this regard, with many patients turning to cannabis illegally when they cannot find relief from other prescribed therapy or medication. Rucker argued that patients don’t want to commit a criminal act and are often worried about the quality and safety of cannabis purchased on the illicit market.
Looking ahead at the future of medicinal cannabis access for people like her, Julia said she has “fresh hope for the future,” adding, “It’s still early days, but my life is already so much more fulfilling.”
