Study: Medical Cannabis Oil Helps Relieve Autism Symptoms

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Medical cannabis oil for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) appears to be a well-tolerated, safe and effective option to relieve symptoms including seizures, tics, depression, restlessness and rage attacks, according to a new study by Israeli researchers from Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center.

The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also show that cannabis treatment can significantly improve sleep and concentration.

“Overall, more than 80 percent of the parents reported significant or moderate improvement in their child,” said Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider of the BGU-Soroka Clinical Cannabis Research Institute.

https://psychcentral.com/news/2019/02/0 ... 42541.html

I personally know of a young man with non-verbal autism who's family controls those symptoms him with a pot brownie every day, medically prescribed.

To the naysayers, cannabis oil is just snake oil and provides absolutely no benefit other than placebo to autistic children or epilepsy or "___insert chronic illness___" until suddenly one day a study is published and it does provide benefits that patients had been claiming that it did for years and years all along. What a shock!! *sarcasm*

Please differentiate between epilepsy and autism. Benefit in the direction of epilepsy has been known for thousands of years. Read this paper, too: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6287295/, where the research in Israel has been mentioned.

Autism is rather simple to understand. It's basically the excess of neurite connections, which topologically means instead of more straight-line circuits inside the brain, you get more loops (circle-like circuits). Thus, these children focus more processes than concepts. The human brain is like a Hamiltonian in physics, made of two types of circuit components: concepts and processes. They are like the coordinate and momentum operators. An eigenstate of the "process" or "momentum" operator manifests itself in things like (a) rigidity, (b) stimming / repetitive behaviors, (c) ADHD, (d) tantrums, (e) anxiety, (f) OCD, (g) epilepsy in some. Because most people operate in the "coordinate" or "concept" space, they tend to view the "process" or "momentum" space as pathological. But just like we use fixed frequency carriers in electronic signal transmission (think about how you are reading this message: it went through many network connections, all relying on fixed-frequency carrier signals plus modulation to bring my words to you), those "processes" are extremely useful, when you know how to use modulation technique to tweak them and blend your desired information into them.

If you know something about modern AI / Deep Learning, you will realize that the two most popular configurations (a) CNN: convolutional neural network, and (b) RNN: recurrent neural network, match perfectly to the capturing of "concepts" and "processes." That is not just a coincidence.

What's my point? Cannabis oil or other medications are not the answer to autism. Modulation is. Once you know how to use modulation, you can intercept the process signals and grow connections inside the brain of these children. Concepts become linked inside the brain. You don't do that and you become lazy and want to delegate the development of autistic children to medication, go ahead, make my day. I am not the one complaining, I am the one enjoying life and having fun with my children. No need to cry, no need to whine. You make your decision, you live with the consequences. Life is very fair.

Autism is not new. In my opinion, it's been with humans for thousands of years. It's responsible for our writing systems and all technological innovations. I think it's worthwhile to explore how our ancestors successfully raised these children. Evolution did not make these children to be dependent on medication. Medications came way after autism. In short, understand first the message that Mother Nature has been trying to tell us.

I see with my own eyes the effect of cannibidiol/Epidiolex on children. The effects on epilepsy are more or less clear. As for improvement on learning, that is extremely limited.

I'm sick of hearing autistic traits being referred to as "symptoms", and I have no desire to become a stoner whatsoever. I'm quite proud of the fact I can do crafts and artwork without relying on mind-bending substances.

I'm sick of hearing people who think that using CBD oil makes them a stoner, or assuming that using cannabis in any form at any dose automatically makes them a stoner.

That's true enough. I've been stoned...I've also tried cbd oil. CBD oil didn't do much of anything that I could detect. Some people swear by it, but I've never heard of anyone feeling stoned from CBD oil. (I believed it's usually derived from hemp if I am not mistaken). It's not supposed to be psychoactive in any case.

I would be skeptical about these claims. 1. The medical marijuana field is rife with faulty and poorly done studies claiming supposed used of medical marijuana or other derivative products. 2. There are plenty of studies of supposed treatments for autism that are faulty or exaggerated in their claims.

Autism is a spectrum. "Symptoms" (with due respect to lostonearth35, please suggest an alternative word) vary from individual to individual. Just because one parent has success with one particular intervention, doesn't mean it will work for another individual. Some autists have "symptoms" which are so severe that no amount of modulation, loving kindness, ABA, medications, diets, vitamins, etc., etc. is going to help.

Evolution did not make autists to be dependent on medication. (Never mind this isn't the way evolution works.) Evolution did not make people to be dependent on antibiotics, blood coagulators, blood pressure medications, etc. But we use them. Evolution has contributed to the larger brain and increased cognitive abilities which has resulted in the human ability to analyze situations and propose new ways of dealing with them.

Medications can have different effects on different people, and that includes the entire range of medications. Research into cannabis, whether THC or CBD, was hampered by restrictive laws in the US. So to date, much of the "evidence" is anecdotal. The point is: whatever works to relieve unpleasant and destructive "symptoms" of autism, things that make the person's life more difficult to even impossible to bear, should be made accessible to those who are suffering. (Again, my apologies to lostonearth35. I don't know what to call these "symptoms") And if you haven't seen the level of suffering experienced by truly severe autism, count your blessings.

Take a close look at the study. There are several factors which would would render the general claim questionable.
1. The study used a small sample size (and which got even smaller throughout the period of the study, since less than half of those in it responded in the end). The study itself admits this problem.
2. The study was mainly based of a patient report questionnaire. That is method in that is in general known to have high risks for inaccuracy. Due to it's reliance on often subjective questions and responses, that are difficult to form to reliable quantifiable measures. It is even more problematic in this case given that the questionnaires were reportedly filled by parents/ caretakers, and not the actual patients themselves. Thus instead of getting a report of someone's experience, they got reports of how other individuals externally perceived someone else's individual experiences. Which becomes highly problematic where some of the main things you're trying to measure are like mood and anxiety. Again, the study admits this problem.
3. The study,as far as it reports, did not do anything to monitor the actual physical effects on patients. This is especially problematic when it comes to measuring side effects. They only reported the side effects that respondents claims, and (as far as can be seen) did not do any medical examinations to look for effects that may not have been noticed by respondents.
4. As far be seen from the report of the study, the researchers did not really measure symptoms of autism (and by that I mean symptoms that are used in the diagnosis of autism in the DSMV). Instead what they measured comorbid conditions (seizures, depression), whether someone got dressed independently, sleep patterns, restlestness, and getting angry. Contrary to its general image, the study isn't focused on how cannabis effects autism. Based on its metrics, it's focused on how cannabis effects effects several co morbid conditions, and some specific behavior.
5. The study reports that many of the patients in the study were taking various medications in addition to the cannabis doses prescribed to them. The researchers did not go into any length to measure how these other medications may have effected their results.
6. The study report itself states that they did not find proof of a causal connection between the CBD doses and the reported results, that their were several biases in the study, and that further, more accurate studies would be needed to see if their conclusions could be verified or not.

Also, from reading the study, none of the so called autistic symptoms described in the study were autistic traits. Rather they study was mostly studying traits associated epilepsy, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders (which a person can have in addition to being autistic, but are not the same as autism), along with a few specific issues that some autistic people have (mainly they were focusing on whether a person could dressed in the morning). The study also didn't actually do anything to monitor the physical effects of the cannabis products they prescribed to the patients in the study, and instead relied on questionnaires filled out the parents of patients. And towards the end, the writers of the study admitted that their study did not provide any actual causal proof that the cannibals products did what they claimed they did.

I personally know of a young girls with non-verbal autism who's family controls those symptoms her with a cbd oil every day, medically prescribed. Studies also show that cannabis treatment can significantly improve sleep and concentration, as well as it's common to use [url=[/url]

Last edited by B19 on 02 Mar 2020, 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.: spammer

Hmm ... I personally find that
- vacuum cleaner
- toilet flushing
- elevators
- pushing buttons
- banana peel and dental floss
- missiles
are more effective than any medication or treatment out there. These are the benefits for my son:
- from playing with a vacuum cleaner, he learned to read
- from flushing toilets, he learned to talk
- he virtually learned all the skills he needs in life, from elevators
- he learned to make electronic circuits, from pushing fake elevator buttons that I have taped throughout the house
- from banana peel and dental floss, he learned to regulate himself and get rid of tantrums
- from missiles, he learned to do long division

If you make me choose between CBD and flushing a toilet, I'd go with flushing a toilet. No kidding, I just spent $200 a few weeks ago to visit a toilet. Sentimental value ...

Last edited by B19 on 02 Mar 2020, 9:22 am, edited 2 times in total.: spam link in quote from previous poster