People who have bipolar disorder usually manifest depressive and manic episodes or extreme mood changes, or “mood swings”. It is a mental disorder that may also include psychosis including hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations mean hearing or seeing things that are not existing, while delusions are the belief of a person that something is real but isn’t. Bipolar disorder can significantly affect the ability of a person to function because the emotional highs and lows can be devastating. There is no cure for this condition but treatments can definitely help a patient suffering from bipolar disorder. An alternative treatment is medical marijuana seeds, but is it really safe and effective for treating bipolar disorder? Let’s find out!
Medical Marijuana Seeds for Bipolar Disorder
The standard treatments for bipolar disorder include therapy and prescription medications, which can help a patient manage mood changes. Marijuana is foreseen as a promising treatment for bipolar disorder. Cannabis contains the active cannabinoid, THC, which causes “high”. The National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA says that the compounds found in marijuana can help in treating the symptoms of bipolar disorder, such as appetite loss, muscle control issues, pain, nausea, and inflammation. The medication, Marinol or dronabinol, contains cannabinoid-like compounds but don’t cause a “high” feeling or effect.
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a common, but usually overlooked form of mental disorder. Many people are not aware of the real problem behind this psychiatric condition. It is also called as manic-depressive illness. It can manifest as “mania” or periods of ecstasy or extremely high energy or “depressive episodes” including low mood, hopelessness, and fatigue.
What Are the Types of Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar I: It is characterized by sustained periods of mania that last for a more than a week. Patients also experience depressive episodes which result in dramatic mood shifts from one day to another. This type of bipolar disorder can be obstructive to an individual’s daily routine. In some cases, it requires hospitalization.
Bipolar II: It is characterized by extended depressive episodes. Patients struggle with the occasional manic episodes of Bipolar II. The person feels “low” moods, decreased ability to function or lack of energy.
Cyclothymia: This category of bipolar disorder affects patients less as compared to the previous two. The patient experiences sustained periods of hypomania. It is characterized by depressive behaviors that do not necessarily reach the peak of full manic and depressive episodes. Bipolar disorder also includes fourth and fifth types which are other unspecified and specified varieties of this disease which are diagnosed only by health professionals.
How Medical Cannabis Can Help Patients?
A lot of physicians and researchers consider the medical benefits of cannabinoids when treating a person with bipolar disorder. There was a study at Lancaster University (UK) that sampled 24 patients with bipolar disorder who used marijuana at least thrice a week. It was conducted using the ESM Method (Experience Sampling Method) wherein the participants have a diary of their own findings or observation of their manic and depressive episodes over a period of six days. The results are inconclusive but the findings showed that patients who used cannabis enjoyed the positive effects.
Cannabis promotes better mood with low mental impairment. In another study published in 2016, patients with bipolar disorder did not experience a significant mental impairment when consuming cannabis as compared to patients who did not use cannabis. Many critics of medical cannabis say that the herb can affect a person’s memory and think, but this is not true. Patients who took cannabis even reported better moods.
Cannabis provides a better outlook in life and enhanced mood. Of course, cannabis can affect a person in different ways, depending on the tolerance and amount consumed. There are many anecdotal pieces of evidence showing how patients with bipolar disorder improved with the right dose of medical cannabis. That is why it’s crucial to talk to your medical cannabis doctor to obtain the right prescription. Always consult your psychiatrist for any alternative treatment to your current medical treatment or medication to ensure safety.
Considering Cannabinoid Concentrations
Whenever studies are performed, it is important to consider the cannabinoid concentrations through the various ways of cannabis consumption. For example, bipolar patients who tend to smoke marijuana concentrates likely experience adverse mood disorders for strains with high THC levels. The marijuana strains with high CBD tend to have more positive results in treating bipolar. With the wide array of cannabis varieties today, breeders and seed banks have a tight competition. Because of this, they try their best to keep up with the quality of their products by producing THC-rich or CBD-rich products to treat different medical conditions.
The cannabinoid, THC, is an active ingredient that incites acute paranoia and anxiety in some patients. The cannabinoid, CBD, is very effective in counteracting the negative effects of THC and psychotropic symptoms. The type of marijuana strain should also be recognized, whether it is Cannabis sativa, indica or a hybrid. Each strain will produce varying results individually and even on a larger scale. There’s still a lot of things to be considered when considering cannabis as a treatment for a mental condition. However, the positive feedback from real people makes cannabis a high priority as an alternative treatment over prescription medications. Because cannabis is becoming a medical trend, many healthcare workers are considering testing the effects and results.
Conclusion
While there are not enough compelling studies about the scientific explanation and clinical trials of cannabis in the treatment of bipolar disorder, we have come to a point when the world is now more open to this topic. The gradual acceptance of medical cannabis in the world of medicine is a positive indicator and open great opportunities to conduct relevant studies along the way. We cannot discount the criticisms but we can face them with full trust and confidence by backing up with our own efforts to prove that medical marijuana seeds or cannabis are not as bad as others think.