Louis Centanni smokes marijuana daily for relief from the tics of Tourette’s syndrome.

“There’s one thing that helps my Tourette’s more than anything, and it’s marijuana,” says Louis Centanni, the 24-year-old actor and comedian featured in Patient Voices: Tourette’s Syndrome. Dr. Robert A. King and Dr. James F. Leckman of the Yale School of Medicine, who recently joined the Consults blog to answer readers’ questions about Tourette’s, here respond to readers asking about the use of marijuana for easing the tics, vocalizations and jerking movements of the syndrome.

Is Marijuana Effective for Tourette’s?
Q.

Clinical studies have shown that marijuana can be effective in relieving the symptoms of this disease: https://norml.org…Paul Kuhn, Nashville
Q.

I see that the first patient with Tourette’s featured in the Patient Voices series uses marijuana to calm his tics. How do the chemicals in marijuana help Tourette’s patients, and do other depressant-type drugs also help? Rafi, N.Y.
A.

Dr. King and Dr. Leckman respond:

A number of individuals with severe Tourette’s regularly use marijuana and report that it calms them and eases their tics. And a few randomized clinical trials of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, have been carried out. Some of the investigators are convinced that THC and related compounds in marijuana called cannabinoids are helpful; others are more equivocal.

The most comprehensive review to date of the efficacy of cannabinoids in Tourette’s comes from a research group in Britain, the Cochrane Collaboration, that reviewed all the available data. They found that “the improvements in tic frequency and severity were small and were only detected by some of the outcome measures.” The group concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the use of cannabinoids in treating tics and obsessive-compulsive behavior in people with Tourette’s syndrome.

In addition, regular use of marijuana also has potential physical and psychological side effects, including apathy, depression or even psychosis in vulnerable individuals. As with other drugs, suitability depends on the patient, and risks and benefits must be weighed. We certainly wouldn’t recommend it for adolescents.

As for mode of action, there is a growing scientific literature concerning the body’s ability to make substances called endocannabinoids, which resemble the active compounds in marijuana. Our bodies contain various enzymes that make these endogenous cannabinoids, and two specific types of receptors for these substances are distributed throughout our body, including the brain.

It appears that the cannabinoids can modulate major neurotransmitter systems in the brain – including those involving GABA and glutamine. These pathways provide one hypothesis for why marijuana sometimes has the effect of reducing tics.

Source:
https://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/20...cal-marijuana/

Reduction in tic frequency and possible psychosis in only the vulnerable individuals...I liked what these doctors had to say and would like to read more of this Cochrane Collaboration. I hope others find this article as useful as I did:

[Wilson!]

Gimme a fuc**ng joint, blunt, hit, vape, brownie, tincture, oil, numb nutzz.!!!!Gimme a fuc**ng......joint..joint..blu nt..blunt..hit..hit..fuc**ng.. fu*k.. numz...ahhhh...shit.

[SvenB]

^ wtf kinda comment is that. I like it, the more medical uses the better

[Open Eyes]

That, up there, is somebody with tourettes getting relief.

[Normannen]

Looks like Wilson's got Tourette

[herbaholic]

Well no shit! I bet it helps ADHD kids chill out too.

[THCengineer]

https://www.marijuanatimes.org/study...ttes-patients/
Study Finds Cannabis is Effective for Treating Tourette’s Patients
By Julia Granowicz - Jul 6, 2017

In many states where medical marijuana is legal, one of the many listed qualifying conditions is Tourette Syndrome. The illness is a neurological disorder that causes tics, OCD, and ADD-like tendencies among other issues. While there is no cure for Tourette’s, there are some therapies that prove effective in minimizing symptoms – and one of the most effective treatments with the fewest side effects appears to be medical marijuana.

A recent study published in The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences found that Tourette’s patients who used marijuana found a reduction in their symptoms – so the clinic started to make medical cannabis recommendations. After enough patients were using medical cannabis and finding it to be helpful, the clinic decided they should look further to see how effective the cannabis was in treating the disorder.

“Several of my patients with Tourette syndrome had noticed that if they used some marijuana, their tics decreased significantly,” Elia Abi-Jaoude said in a PsyPost report. “We began prescribing medical cannabis at our clinic and were struck by the improvements we saw in tics and related symptoms. We eventually decided that we should investigate this topic further.”

With the help of the University of Toronto, researcher Elia Abi-Jaoude did a retroactive study of the patients’ symptoms and found that 18 out of 19 patients saw a 60% reduction in tics. It also found that medical cannabis was, for the most part, well tolerated among all patients. The only side effects mentioned were sleepiness, decreased concentration and anxiety, though there was nothing accounting for patients using different strains from one another or during the course of treatment.

“We hope that with further research we can get a clearer picture of the potential benefits and risks with using cannabis for tics and related symptoms,” Abi-Jauode said.

While this study lacked a control and a placebo, the hope is that this small study based on patient experience will lead into a larger study in the future – a study that could potentially help determine which cannabinoids are most beneficial to patients with Tourette Syndrome, which strains will work the best, and how it works to reduce symptoms in the first place. This would give more states reason to put Tourette’s on their list of conditions that qualify a patient for medical marijuana, giving more people safe access to an effective, natural alternative medicine.