Would You Take Pot Drug for Fibromyalgia?
How badly do you want a drug that effectively reduces your fibromyalgia-related pain and anxiety, with fewer side effects? Badly enough to take a drug related to marijuana?
A Canadian research team says its study of the drug nabilone, which is a synthentic form of marijuana, showed it could significantly improve the quality of life for people with fibromyalgia, based on what's called the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire. Relief from pain and anxiety wasn't complete, however, so the researchers want nabilone to be considered as an additional treatment, not a primary one.
Currently, the drug is approved in Canada to treat nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy. It's not approved at all in the U.S. The cost is a big downside - about $4,000 a year. Also, it can be habit forming (then again, so can a lot of the drugs we're prescribed.) Possible side effects include:
- Hallucinations
- Paranoia
- Rapid heart rate
- Dizziness
- Weakness or lack of coordination
Would you shy away from nabilone because it's related to marijuana, or do you just want to find something that works? Are we on dangerous ground looking at drugs like this? Do you think the U.S. would ever approve it? Post your comment here or in About.com's Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Forum.
- Take the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionaire
- Read about drugs commonly used to treat fibromyalgia.
- Fibromyalgia symptoms: The Monster List!
Comments
Since when did marijuana get such a bad rap. Of course I’d take something made from it if it worked and it was legal. Would you take something derived from alcohol? The big no no about marijuana is that it is illegal, you have to smoke it which is bad for your lungs and to get it you’d have to associate with people who are more likely to push other things. Not to mention again, it is illegal! So isn’t it time to try to find some good use for its properties without all the bad. What I’m trying to say is there is good and bad in alot of things.
Yes, I would try it. If you read the history of marijuana it wasn’t that long ago when it was used for medicinal purposes. In my opinion it became illegal when it couldn’t be owned by the drug companies as it is a natural substance.
I have considered medical marijuana but prefer not to have the feds after me. Too many who have been prescribed marijuana by a Doc in the state they live have been harrased by the Feds.
I would take anything that would help. I don’t care where it comes from. At least marajuana isn’t habit forming like most of the pain pills my doctor has me on. Do I think the USA will ever approve it, no because the congress is prejusticed against marajuana. I don’t care what they say while campaining I don’t see marajuane being legalized or a drug that derives from marajuana being legalized.
Have you seen this?
http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/8467/t/CFIDS_FM
Wow, I’m surprised that nobody has a problem with it. While I support the use of medical marijuana, I’ve seen several lives torn apart by pot and I know how habit-forming it can be. Certainly, a lot of the drugs prescribed for these conditions are even more addictive and have worse side effects, so I think it’s really my personal experience that would make me extremely hesitant to try this drug.
Could pot be as effective when made as an herbal tincture or in a pill? Why does it have to be smoked to benefit? My massage therapist offered me some in a tincture while I underwent chemo but I never tried it.
I am at a point if my Dr prescribred rat poision I would try it. The pain is that bad and the tireness has me not functioning.
Brneda
I would try anything to help relieve my pain!
Would I try something made with pot? Yes I would. Pot is used all over the world to help medical conditions, even in some U.S. states it is now avaiolable for medical reasons. The government fears all drugs…..I fear pain 24/7 for the rest of my life? Write to your political reps. for any chance of change on drug policy!
Yes, I would use it but I would actually prefer to take the original herb if it is anything like the synthetic difference to the natural progesterone for instance. It is legal to grow three plants at a time for personal use in South Australia as far as I know.
I’d take it in a heartbeat.
Chronicfatigue – i’m sorry about your experiences, however, drug ABUSE comes in many forms. I am on several medications now for fibro. and neuropathy and they are addictive substances. I simply “use as directed” and have no problems with them. The medicinal contents of this drug will not be the same as what your ‘acquaintenances’ will buy off the street.
Yes…it it helps I want it yesterday.
Marijuana is a natural part of earth and no government should be allowed to make it illegal. The medicinal properties are enormous and you cannot become addicted to it.
It was used for thousands of years as a medicinal plant because it has over 60 THCs that can treat a HUGE variety of conditions including cancer, tumors, anxiety, pain, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, and just about anything else you can think of.
It’s banned was based on greed…. government and pharmaceuticals. And there are really no side effects. You can smoke it (no, it doesn’t really harm your lungs), bake with it, create special oils for treatment, and many other forms.
It’s incredible how the government took a natural product of earth and decided they knew better than mother nature!!!
GEEZ LOUSE!
And those stupid videos they made back then to say it makes you crazy or mad when in fact it calms you and helps you to focus.
It has so many wonderful properties to heal and improve everyone’s quality of life.
But the government continues to control the uneducated through fear and lies.
So many lives can be normalized with this plant. Plus it would be cheap because you would grow it yourself.
But the shift is coming. And the government will be held accountable. Thanks to the internet, there are more educated and rational minds seeing the truth.
i’d be first in line for it. i already know it works. the illegal part is a real turn off, as is the price. pain meds only cost me $3.10 a month. i agree regarding the reasons why it’s illegal, but it shouldn’t be.
You bet I would. The ideal there is somthing out there that has the potential to help and is not being considerd in the USA is unbelivble. I can not take any narcotic drugs as I hav adverse reactions to all of them. The FDA approved drug is not as benifical as a couple of tic-tacs for me and I have been on it for 4 months now. So for Pt. like me and I am sure others in my same perdicament There is no doubt I would try it.
You’d better believe I would take it!!! I’m not surprised that the large majority of people who posted on here would do it,because they all know how living in the pain and fatigue we do, is unacceptable. I heard that it’s o.k. to have it prescribed in Oregon and California. Is that true?
Why not? Been on narcs for years now, anything at this point would be at the least to say, relieving!!!!!!!!!!!!
Methadone and buprenorphine, for example, are effective medications for the treatment of opiate addiction. Acting on the same targets in the brain as heroin and morphine, these medications block the drug’s effects, suppress withdrawal symptoms, and relieve craving for the drug.
I believe that taking something derived from marijuana would cause side effects individuals are not looking for. Stress is a factor prior to the onset of fibromyalgia therefore eliminating some stress may help relieve some symptoms. Experimenting with a drug that can lead to mental addiction will only dig someone suffering into a deeper hole. I am against using marijuana as a way to aide in the pain of fibromyalgia.
Marijuana has been used for at least 6000 years. Its only the last 100 its been outlawed. Some things just will never make sense, laws that are more harm than the drug itself is one of those things. People only live so long, 100 trips around the sun and the games over. Nobody on earth should be able to tell a man what he can and cannot do to his body in his own home, especially when it relieves his pain, be it mental or physical. Marijuana is not addicting, its merely habit forming, the same as coffee or soda. Not the same as cigarettes or crack which is a known physical addiction. The saddest part of this whole thing for me is my mother suffers from multiple diseases that pot or marijuana can help, but because its illegal its more of a joke to her. So there I am, at my one elderly friends house where he exclaims how amazing marijuana is and how it has changed his life and relieved 75% of his pain at all times, allowing him to gain weight and go for walks, etc. At the same time I try to speak with my mother and she looks at me like im crazy, then later makes a joke about me wanting to get her on drugs. For gods sake the woman takes more pills/drugs than carter but simply because the drug companies push the doctors into being their dope peddlers doesnt make them any better. On top of all that, the drugs either dont work, work for a short period of time, or the side effects are worse than the original pain. Im so sick of this world not making sense when my mother leaves it, I will as well.
I would like to take the medication pill form of marijuana (THC) if it didn’t have residual side effects with me. Having SMOKED pot in the past I did NOT like it’s side effects, like the munchies (I piled up on sweets, like ice cream and chocolates, which gave me unhealthy weight gain and high triglycerides) and non-stop coughing. It also aggravated my asthma. Additionally, quitting cigarette smoking (my self-medication coming in to play) had been difficult enough, so I wouldn’t want to add any more fumes into my already debilitated body. The “jury is still out” as far as I’m concerned.
In my opinion medical marijuana is one of the best if not the best treatments for fibromyalgia pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety. There is no human made medicine that can do as much to help this condition.
I would not mind it ,if I did’t have to smoke
it.I feel the same way,as that lady who said
she would take rat poisen on a bad day!
the US government would rather put people on synthetic heroin… aka Oxycontin. People can become suicidal from the pain when bad enough and to think just because marijuana isnt synthetic, they AREN’T guarunteed a cut from its sales, being you can grow it yourself. In other words they make too much damn money to legalize a drug that could replace many others. The us government says it has no medical value yet who has the patent for medical marijuana?– the same administration who claims no medical value.