Need info on marijuana and effects on Severe Depression

[MadamePandora]

Hi all

 

my partner has severe and prolonged depression that is not being adequately controlled by conventional pharmaceutical medication. She has been hospitalised because of it for the last 2 months and next week they are beginning shock treatment (Electro-convulsive Therapy), this is kind of the last resort where medication has failed.

 

I am wondering if anyone here has any information on using marijuana as a treatment for severe depression. I'd be particularly interested in links to reputable studies... if there are any, but if you have anecdotal evidence of it helping you or someone you know I'd also be interested in hearing about your experiences.

 

I smoke it for pain relief and its muscle relaxant properties, but my partner does not smoke it regularly. She has leukemia and one of her doctors has previously recommended it for use with the nausea and muscle cramping side effects of the chemotherapy. (the leukemia is unlikely to be fatal but she will be on oral chemo drugs for the rest of her life so the nausea and cramping will be permanent).

 

I am at my wits end from arguing with F**king psychiatrists for weeks and I am desperately looking for advice or help with this issue and willing to consider any alternative medication or therapy that people can tell me about.

 

thanks

[luciddreaming]

P.s. Moreso than Cannabis , Learning to "know thyself" has helped ... which , funnily enough , I beleive Cannabis helps to learn Coping skills , fake it until you make it etc ... all sounds retarted when your in the depths of despair , but there is some truth there aswell ... I guess the theory of most medicos is just that , to releive the depression in order to counsel the mind ... Well Using Cannabis gives you both tools to use yourself imho ... Self-medication and self-healing , self-diagnosing and self-counselling. ... just some added thoughts. Bye Now.

 

This is so true. Cannabis relieves depression, plus allows you to analyse your deepest thoughts, which can help resolve the underlying problem of why you are depressed.

 

One question. Is your partner depressed BECAUSE of the cancer? Or was she depressed before?

I don't want to recommend this, because it can do more harm than good if there is wrong preparation, but hallucinogens have been shown to be extremely effective in relieving depression in chronically ill patients. Because of the profound insights you gain, and also because things like mushrooms increase serotonin levels.

 

But anyway, here are some studies on Cannabis and depression.

 

http://cannalink.org/granny/Psychological/Depression/

 

Seriously, DON'T let her get ECT. Fuckin' stupid shit. Just think about it. They are electrocuting a persons brain, basically hoping that it will get the right spot without getting anything else in the process. IMO very similar to chemo, hoping it will kill the cancer cells before the rest of the body.

 

BUT, one good thing I know that has come out of ECT is that some scientists looked at studies that have been done on it, and case reports, and they found that the patients who were anesthetised with Ketamine, showed a much higher rate of improvement compared to other anesthetic drugs.

 

Now I am just recommending this IN CASE Cannabis does not work and would definitely recommend trying Cannabis first. This is mainly because you would probably have to get it on the street, unless you have doctor contacts. But after they found this out they did a study on Ketamine and reducing depression and they found that it instantly rids the patient of depression for up to 1 to 2 weeks. Here is the study....http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9696-ketamine-relieves-depression-within-hours.html

http://biopsychiatry.com/ketaminedep.htm

 

Good luck mate!

[itswhat]

i have known people to use it for depression and what you call panic attacks.

a lot of people find using a vaporizer is better as it is less stressful

[~sawyer~]

I don't want to recommend this, because it can do more harm than good if there is wrong preparation, but hallucinogens have been shown to be extremely effective in relieving depression in chronically ill patients. Because of the profound insights you gain, and also because things like mushrooms increase serotonin levels.

 

This is very interesting lucid,

Do you have any links to studies/articles for further reading?

Cheers

[Pig Mindset]

For severe depression I find dope with high CBD% can really lift moods, the kind of stuff that really gets you giggling and I think in a way teaches you a bit about your mind. Older herb with more of a CBN hit may make depression worse with more of a motivation kill high, although it isn't bad for getting to sleep or chilling out. Dose and strain are very important when using cannabis for depression and overdoing one strain for too long may not be too helpful either.

[luciddreaming]

This is very interesting lucid,

Do you have any links to studies/articles for further reading?

Cheers

I've not much time to get the actual studies right now, but here's articles about them and check Erowid vaults on Mushrooms and Ketamine for studies also.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-39...scientists.html

http://www.first30days.com/dealing-with-de...depression.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8070200972.html

http://www.first30days.com/dealing-with-de...-challenge.html (ignore the comments on this one, they are biased pricks. Who don't realise that Ketamine is one of the most USEFUL substances to, as one of them says, "reach inside - way way down deep sometimes - to find the will to keep on keepin on".

And Ketamine again http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9696...thin-hours.html

[Fibrofeend]

Well there is not much if any physical scientific evidence about what goes on in the brains of

people. It is all guess work and hypothesis.

My advice would be similar to others, stay away from crazy doctors, who want to USE you for there

experiments, DRUGS and procedures, usually just so they can get there name in a medical journal.

There is way to much money in the LEGAL drugs trade now.

I was directed by another user of this site to watch " Making A Killing " movie length doco

because of my bad experiences with doctors, and there little pills they push. I recommend every one watches it.

As for cannabis use, yeah give it a go!! try all the methods available, and strains you can get your hands on.

I would have to vote Vaporization as the best for relieving mental unease, and eating canna butter if

you want some physical releif from pain. What have you got to loose? if it makes shit worse, then

go try brain electrocution.. anyways theres my 2 bob

PEACE

[luciddreaming]

Well there is not much if any physical scientific evidence about what goes on in the brains of

people. It is all guess work and hypothesis.

That's NOT true. They have figured out exactly how Cannabis works for a LOT of things. There's been a shitload of studies once the endocannabinoid system was discovered.

 

Also, "Making a Killing" is about Tobacco, not pharmaceuticals isn't it? Swear it is....

[Fibrofeend]

That's NOT true. They have figured out exactly how Cannabis works for a LOT of things. There's been a shitload of studies once the endocannabinoid system was discovered.

 

Also, "Making a Killing" is about Tobacco, not pharmaceuticals isn't it? Swear it is....

 

Well it is true true Lucid, most tests on the human brain are all very subjective, where as traditional science is objective.

Most studies performed on people they use imaging equipment such as functional MRI.s whilst the patient is under the influence

of whateva they are doing to them.

There are very few people who are willing to have there head opened up so scientists can physically probe there brain.

Even so this only measures electrical activity in the brain. There is NO physical tests that can detect different chemical levels in the brain

and how certain drugs are interacting with thoses chemicals.

Eg: SRI's Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors , the standed line is these will make your brain have more serotonin.

This is bullshit, it is totally hypothetical , they have no idea what it really does to people.. the people are the test

subjects. ( guinea pigs )

And NO " Making a Killing " has nothing to do with tobacco, as i said maybe try watching it, il send you a copy.

peace

[luciddreaming]

Yeah I did watch it when someone mentioned it before. Maybe google just came up with the wrong video.

Coz I assumed it was about pharma but then it was about Marlborough .

 

What I should have said is that YES a lot of evidence about the brain is not extremely accurate. But I wouldn't say it is subjective.

But there is a lot of research where they put the chemicals into a petri dish with whatever brain cells they think it might have an affinity with and if it binds they know it goes to that part of the brain. So it's not only MRI's.

Also SSRI's are a bad example. They are the worst pharmaceutical drugs ever brought to market.

They sold them by the companies running dodgy tests and then saying depression is due to a "chemical imbalance".

Then they said anxiety and OCD are also caused by serotonin deficiency without much proof either. So then they were marketed for this as well.

There was basically no science in that. But scientists are fairly certain now what causes depression, I can't remember exactly now but it's stress damages a part of the brain which causes it, but strangely, for some reason anti-depressants only work in EXTREMELY depressed patients. They don't know why.

 

But take Cannabis for example. We basically know every organ and part of the body it has an effect on. We can see this by the petri dish thing I mentioned, but also by attaching 'markers' to the compounds and then injecting or getting the patients to eat or smoke it or whatever. Then they track the path of the compounds through the body and BRAIN.

 

So please, read up a bit more before you start saying things like "not much if any physical scientific evidence about what goes on in the brains of people. It is all guess work and hypothesis."

[MadamePandora]

We have got her off the SSRI anti-D's as they have side effects that include increased suicide risk...

 

I want to know how they can even provide an antidepressant that INCREASES suicide risk

 

 

I'll keep reading up on things and let you all know if we begin trying marijuana..