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UC San Diego to use controversial marijuana compound to treat severe autism
UC San Diego will try to alleviate severe autism in children by giving them a non-psychoactive chemical found in marijuana, a project funded by the biggest private donation ever made in the U.S. for such research.
The $4.7 million study involves the controversial compound cannabidiol, or CBD, which is widely marketed nationwide as something of a miracle drug, capable of treating everything from cancer to post-traumatic stress disorder.
[...] UC San Diego dealt with the issue by asking the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation of Lindon, Utah, for $4.7 million to study whether CBD can ease the most severe symptoms of autism, including seizures, self-injuring behavior, and crippling anxiety. The foundation agreed, and it is urging the federal government to remove marijuana from its list of Schedule 1 drugs so that cannabis can be widely studied.
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US experts back marijuana-based drug for childhood seizures
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:12PM
We've been treating some severe symptoms of ASD with Marinol (dronabinol) for a couple of years now. It's nothing like a cure for ASD, but it can help to defuse some of the more challenging situations with our 18 year old son. We tried it as a daily dose, that wasn't really helpful - set a new baseline and things were just as bad as before after a while, and worse if you missed the dose. When used "as needed" it tends to take everyone's stress level down a couple notches within 10-30 minutes, even people who aren't taking it.
It also works well for mom to lower her cortisol levels, on the same kind of "as needed" basis. Unfortunately, dad can't afford to fail a whiz quiz at work, so he's stuck with alcohol as a stress reliever - definitely not good when overused, but semi-effective in small occasional doses.