KC & Cannabis?

[ChrisK]

I was doing some research on KC when I stumbled upon a forum where a guy from the states claims he is prescribed cannabis for his KC. I believe he is given it as it relaxes his eyes and helps take away pain.

I found this rather intriguing, but rather than just taking his word for it I wondered if anyone else has any information on the use of cannabis in helping the symptoms of KC?

A big myth or a possible alternative in helping improve the day to day lives of KC sufferers?

[Andrew MacLean]

I have heard that Cannabis is prescribed in some jurisdictions as a palliative treatment for MS, but I have never heard it linked to the treatment of Keratoconus.

Like you, I am wondering whether this is urban myth? You don't have to wait long before somebody will tell you that they know a man who has ... .. ...

For my part I have no difficulty with the proposition that some 'recreational drugs' can have a therapeutic application. If there are duly evaluated therapeutic advantages in using cannabis as a treatment for any condition, then I can see no reason why it should not be authorized for controlled use under prescription.


Andrew

[Matthew_]

My Grandmother was prescribed cannabis for pain relief with her arthritus. We all thought it was very funny indeed having a Grandma on dope
Her pain was very extreme however and she was at an age where perhaps the side effects were of less importance. Cannabis affects long term cognitive abilities and has other problems too, I think so I am not sure about its use in medicine generally, perhaps there is a doctor who can answer this? I wonder how the canabis is taken? Presumably smoking it would cause even more problems.

[Andrew MacLean]

I think that the key is proper scientific evaluation: there is all the difference in the world between some stoner saying "Yeah, I took some weed and my eyes felt better" and a paper that has presented a theoretical basis for research, refined the component from the active ingredients of a plant and measured its effect against a control group in appropriately directed clinical trials.

The sad thing is that in our impatience for results we seem all too willing to eliminate the scientific evaluation of claims and to default to the risky position of 'suck it and see'. I am just grateful that in all this there are people like Gareth who are involved in the hard work of testing and evaluating pharmaceuticals in advance of their reaching clinical trials and then the market.

I think it was Lynne who said in another string that we need to go on remembering the lessons of Thalidomide.

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

I'd be surprised if he was prescribed cannabis in the USA, as I thought they were well behind us along the road to its clinical use as a painkiller.
I've come across people who use it as a painkiller with ongoing painful conditions - MS, as someone said, and cancer.
They swore by it. They said - and this is hard to describe - that it didn't exactly kill the pain, but in a sense it relaxed their mind from thinking about the pain, so they could get on with doing something else and not notice the painful bit because they were too busy thinking of something more interesting.
If you see what I mean......
DOesn't sound like a scenario terribly useful for KC - well, not normal sore eyes from lenses, type of thing. Maybe for post-graft or post =-hydrops discomfort, short term.
But maybe things have got a lot more advanced recently than I've kept oup with...
Rosemary