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Cannabis as a Possible Treatment for Spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis / Kanabis Kao Moguci Tretman U Lecenju Spasticnosti Kod Multiple Skleroze Cover

Cannabis as a Possible Treatment for Spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis / Kanabis Kao Moguci Tretman U Lecenju Spasticnosti Kod Multiple Skleroze

Open Access
|Apr 2016

Abstract

The therapeutic potential of cannabis has been known for centuries. Cannabinoids express their effects through two types of receptors, cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2). Present studies indicate that cannabis-based drugs can make a positive impact in the treatment of different diseases. For many years, multiple sclerosis patients have self-medicated with illegal street cannabis to alleviate spasticity, a common and debilitating symptom that impairs quality of life.

Nabiximols is the cannabis-based medicine approved in many countries as an add-on therapy for symptom improvement in patients with spasticity who have not responded adequately to other medications. Adverse events such as dizziness, diarrhoea, fatigue, nausea, headache and somnolence occur quite frequently with nabiximols, but they are generally of mild-to-moderate intensity and their incidence can be markedly reduced by gradual uptitration. The prerequisite for the therapeutic use of cannabis in Serbia arerequires legal clarification for the use of the drug in a clinical environment

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sjecr-2015-0047 | Journal eISSN: 2956-2090 | Journal ISSN: 2956-0454
Language: English
Page range: 61 - 66
Submitted on: Mar 4, 2015
Accepted on: May 14, 2015
Published on: Apr 14, 2016
Published by: University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2016 Katarina Vesic, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Milica Borovcanin, Janko Samardzic, Gordana Toncev, published by University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.