Miss Indica
New Member
Diseases Treated With Medical Cannabis/Diagnoses Eligible For Receiving Cannabis
AIDS
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),[1] the late stage of which leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumours. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist that slow the virus' progression, there is no known cure.
Cancer
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (in which cancer cells are transported through the blood or lymphatic system). Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk increases with age. It is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of diseases of the optic nerve involving loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern of optic neuropathy. Although raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma, there is no set threshold for intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. One person may develop nerve damage at a relatively low pressure, while another person may have high eye pressures for years and yet never develop damage. Untreated glaucoma leads to permanent damage of the optic nerve and resultant visual field loss, which can progress to blindness.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent, unprovoked grande mal or petit mal seizures.
Muscular spasticity
A spasm is a sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ, or a similarly sudden contraction of an orifice. It is sometimes accompanied by a sudden burst of pain, but is usually harmless and ceases after a few minutes. Spasmodic muscle contraction may also be due to a large number of medical conditions, however, including the dystonias.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. One in three adult Americans suffer from some form of arthritis and the disease affects about twice as many women as men.
Arthritic diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, which are autoimmune diseases; septic arthritis, caused by joint infection; and the more common osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease. Arthritis can be caused from strains and injuries caused by repetitive motion, sports, overexertion, and falls. Unlike the autoimmune diseases, osteoarthritis largely affects older people and results from the degeneration of joint cartilage.
Endometriosis
Insomnia
Crohn's Disease
Crohn's disease is also called regional ileitis; it is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disease of the bowel. The symptoms are most commonly that of diarrhea and pain. Weight loss, fatigue, and irritability are characteristic of the disease. The bowel movements often include mucus, blood and pus because of the infection. Fat may occur in the bowel movements, making them bulky and foul smelling. It tends to get worse as time goes by, and to spread along the bowel, accounting for the alternate name of "regional ileitis".
Migraines
Migraine is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head and are often accompanied by photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), phonophobia (hypersensitivity to sound) and nausea.
Dysmenorreah
Dysmenorrhea (or dysmenorrhoea), cramps or painful menstruation, involves menstrual periods that are accompanied by either sharp, intermittent pain or dull, aching pain, usually in the pelvis or lower abdomen.
Primary dysmenorrhea refers to menstrual pain that occurs in otherwise healthy women. This type of pain is not related to any specific problems with the uterus or other pelvic organs.
Secondary dysmenorrhea is menstrual pain that is attributed to some underlying disease process or structural abnormality either within or outside the uterus (for example, pelvic inflammatory disease, fibroids, endometriosis, adhesions, adenomyosis, uterine displacement, or a retroverted uterus). Endometriosis is the most common cause of dysmenorrhea associated with a disease process and is frequently misdiagnosed.
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. MS can cause a variety of symptoms, including changes in sensation, visual problems, muscle weakness, depression, and difficulties with coordination and speech. Although many patients lead full and rewarding lives, MS can cause impaired mobility and disability in the more severe cases.
Sciatica
Sciatica is a pain in the leg due to irritation of the sciatic nerve. True sciatica is rare. The most common use of the term is for what is actually a lumbar radiculopathy most commonly due to a herniated disc. This condition was initially thought to be irriated of the sciatic nerve itself and this misnomer has stuck. The pain generally goes from the back of the thigh to the back of the calf, and may also extend upward to the hip and down to the foot. In addition to pain, there may be numbness and difficulty moving or controlling the leg.
Huntington's Disease
Huntington's disease or Huntington's chorea (HD) is a rare inherited genetic disorder characterized by abnormal body movements called chorea, and a reduction of various mental abilities. It takes its name from the Ohio physician George Huntington who described it precisely in 1872.
Chorea sancti viti (also known as St. Vitus dance) is an abnormal voluntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. These disorders are caused by overactivity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the areas of the brain that control movement. Chorea is characterized by brief, irregular contractions that are not repetitive or rhythmic, but appear to flow from one muscle to the next. Chorea often occurs with athetosis, which adds twisting and writhing movements.
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease (paralysis agitans or PD) is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement (bradykinesia), and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement (akinesia). The primary symptoms are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the brain.
(psychiatric) Mania
Mania is a medical condition characterised by severely elevated mood. Although "severely elevated mood" may sound pleasant to the unafflicted, the experience of mania is is often quite unpleasant and sometimes disturbing if not frightening for the person involved and may lead to impulsive behavior that may later be regretted. It can also often be complicated by the sufferer's lack of judgment and insight regarding periods of exacerbation of symptoms. Manic patients are frequently grandiose, irritable, belligerent, and frequently deny anything is wrong with them. Because mania frequently encourages high energy and decreased perception of need or ability to sleep, within a few days of a manic cycle, sleep-deprived psychosis may appear, further complicating the ability to think clearly. Racing thoughts and misperceptions lead to frustration and decreased ability to communicate with others.
In addition to decreased need for sleep, other manic symptoms include irritability, hypersexuality, hyper-religiosity, hyperactivity, talkativeness, flight-of-ideas, and grandiose ideas and plans.
(psychiatric) Major Depresssion
Clinical depression is a state of sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living. Although a low mood or state of dejection that does not affect functioning is often referred to as depression, clinical depression is a medical diagnosis and is different from the everyday meaning of "being depressed".
According to the DSM-IV-TR criteria for diagnosing a major depressive disorder one of the following two elements must be present (See the DSM cautionary statement.):
* Depressed mood, or
* Loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities.
It is sufficient to have either of these symptoms in conjunction with five of a list of other symptoms over a two-week period. These include
* Feelings of overwhelming sadness or fear or the seeming inability to feel emotion (emptiness).
* A decrease in the amount of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities of the day, nearly everyday.
* Changing appetite and marked weight gain or loss.
* Disturbed sleep patterns, such as insomnia, loss of REM sleep, or excessive sleep.
* psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly everyday.
* Fatigue, mental or physical, also loss of energy.
* Feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, anxiety, or fear.
* Trouble concentrating or making decisions or a generalized slowing and obtunding of cognition, including memory.
* recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
Other symptoms sometimes reported but not usually taken into account in diagnosis include
* A decrease in self-esteem.
* Inattention to personal hygiene.
* Sensitivity to noise.
* Physical aches and pains, and the belief these may be signs of serious illness.
* Fear of 'going mad'.
* Change in perception of time.
(psychiatric) Generalized Anxiety Dixorder
General anxiety disorder or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about everyday things. The frequency, intensity, and duration of the worry are disproportionate to the actual source of worry, and such worry often interferes with daily functioning.
GAD sufferers often worry excessively over things such as their job, their finances, or the health of themselves and their family. However, GAD sufferers can also worry over more minor matters such as deadlines for appointments, keeping the house clean, and whether or not their workspace is properly organized.
Carpal Tunnel
In the human wrist there is a sheath of tough connective tissue which envelopes and protects one nerve (median nerve) and tendons, which attach muscles to the wrist and hand bones. The carpal tunnel is the space between this sheath (above) and the bones (below) making up the wrist and hand (carpal bones). The term 'carpal tunnel' is also used quite commonly to refer to 'carpal tunnel syndrome' which is a condition where the median nerve is pinched within the tunnel and causes pain and/or numbness of the wrist/hand, once thought to be a result of repetitive motion such as painting or typing.
Marijuana As A Substitute For Opiate Pain Killers
Marijuana is also used in the treatment of chronic pain and injury related pain. It is most often used in place of opiates when a patient is cannot be exposed to opioid drugs but has pain too severe to be treated by ibuprofen and aspirin alone. The most common reason for this substitution is in treating pain and injury suffered by recovering heroin addicts. Those with an addiction to opiates, like heroin, or a former addiction to opiates cannot take opiate painkillers without the risk of relapse back into drug addiction. For this reason, medical marijuana is sometimes recommended. Very few people are allergic to opiate painkillers, but those who are may also be recommended medical marijuana for pain.
AIDS
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),[1] the late stage of which leaves individuals prone to opportunistic infections and tumours. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist that slow the virus' progression, there is no known cure.
Cancer
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (in which cancer cells are transported through the blood or lymphatic system). Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk increases with age. It is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of diseases of the optic nerve involving loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern of optic neuropathy. Although raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma, there is no set threshold for intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. One person may develop nerve damage at a relatively low pressure, while another person may have high eye pressures for years and yet never develop damage. Untreated glaucoma leads to permanent damage of the optic nerve and resultant visual field loss, which can progress to blindness.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent, unprovoked grande mal or petit mal seizures.
Muscular spasticity
A spasm is a sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ, or a similarly sudden contraction of an orifice. It is sometimes accompanied by a sudden burst of pain, but is usually harmless and ceases after a few minutes. Spasmodic muscle contraction may also be due to a large number of medical conditions, however, including the dystonias.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. One in three adult Americans suffer from some form of arthritis and the disease affects about twice as many women as men.
Arthritic diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, which are autoimmune diseases; septic arthritis, caused by joint infection; and the more common osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease. Arthritis can be caused from strains and injuries caused by repetitive motion, sports, overexertion, and falls. Unlike the autoimmune diseases, osteoarthritis largely affects older people and results from the degeneration of joint cartilage.
Endometriosis
Insomnia
Crohn's Disease
Crohn's disease is also called regional ileitis; it is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disease of the bowel. The symptoms are most commonly that of diarrhea and pain. Weight loss, fatigue, and irritability are characteristic of the disease. The bowel movements often include mucus, blood and pus because of the infection. Fat may occur in the bowel movements, making them bulky and foul smelling. It tends to get worse as time goes by, and to spread along the bowel, accounting for the alternate name of "regional ileitis".
Migraines
Migraine is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head and are often accompanied by photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), phonophobia (hypersensitivity to sound) and nausea.
Dysmenorreah
Dysmenorrhea (or dysmenorrhoea), cramps or painful menstruation, involves menstrual periods that are accompanied by either sharp, intermittent pain or dull, aching pain, usually in the pelvis or lower abdomen.
Primary dysmenorrhea refers to menstrual pain that occurs in otherwise healthy women. This type of pain is not related to any specific problems with the uterus or other pelvic organs.
Secondary dysmenorrhea is menstrual pain that is attributed to some underlying disease process or structural abnormality either within or outside the uterus (for example, pelvic inflammatory disease, fibroids, endometriosis, adhesions, adenomyosis, uterine displacement, or a retroverted uterus). Endometriosis is the most common cause of dysmenorrhea associated with a disease process and is frequently misdiagnosed.
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. MS can cause a variety of symptoms, including changes in sensation, visual problems, muscle weakness, depression, and difficulties with coordination and speech. Although many patients lead full and rewarding lives, MS can cause impaired mobility and disability in the more severe cases.
Sciatica
Sciatica is a pain in the leg due to irritation of the sciatic nerve. True sciatica is rare. The most common use of the term is for what is actually a lumbar radiculopathy most commonly due to a herniated disc. This condition was initially thought to be irriated of the sciatic nerve itself and this misnomer has stuck. The pain generally goes from the back of the thigh to the back of the calf, and may also extend upward to the hip and down to the foot. In addition to pain, there may be numbness and difficulty moving or controlling the leg.
Huntington's Disease
Huntington's disease or Huntington's chorea (HD) is a rare inherited genetic disorder characterized by abnormal body movements called chorea, and a reduction of various mental abilities. It takes its name from the Ohio physician George Huntington who described it precisely in 1872.
Chorea sancti viti (also known as St. Vitus dance) is an abnormal voluntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. These disorders are caused by overactivity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the areas of the brain that control movement. Chorea is characterized by brief, irregular contractions that are not repetitive or rhythmic, but appear to flow from one muscle to the next. Chorea often occurs with athetosis, which adds twisting and writhing movements.
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease (paralysis agitans or PD) is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement (bradykinesia), and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement (akinesia). The primary symptoms are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the brain.
(psychiatric) Mania
Mania is a medical condition characterised by severely elevated mood. Although "severely elevated mood" may sound pleasant to the unafflicted, the experience of mania is is often quite unpleasant and sometimes disturbing if not frightening for the person involved and may lead to impulsive behavior that may later be regretted. It can also often be complicated by the sufferer's lack of judgment and insight regarding periods of exacerbation of symptoms. Manic patients are frequently grandiose, irritable, belligerent, and frequently deny anything is wrong with them. Because mania frequently encourages high energy and decreased perception of need or ability to sleep, within a few days of a manic cycle, sleep-deprived psychosis may appear, further complicating the ability to think clearly. Racing thoughts and misperceptions lead to frustration and decreased ability to communicate with others.
In addition to decreased need for sleep, other manic symptoms include irritability, hypersexuality, hyper-religiosity, hyperactivity, talkativeness, flight-of-ideas, and grandiose ideas and plans.
(psychiatric) Major Depresssion
Clinical depression is a state of sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living. Although a low mood or state of dejection that does not affect functioning is often referred to as depression, clinical depression is a medical diagnosis and is different from the everyday meaning of "being depressed".
According to the DSM-IV-TR criteria for diagnosing a major depressive disorder one of the following two elements must be present (See the DSM cautionary statement.):
* Depressed mood, or
* Loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities.
It is sufficient to have either of these symptoms in conjunction with five of a list of other symptoms over a two-week period. These include
* Feelings of overwhelming sadness or fear or the seeming inability to feel emotion (emptiness).
* A decrease in the amount of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities of the day, nearly everyday.
* Changing appetite and marked weight gain or loss.
* Disturbed sleep patterns, such as insomnia, loss of REM sleep, or excessive sleep.
* psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly everyday.
* Fatigue, mental or physical, also loss of energy.
* Feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, anxiety, or fear.
* Trouble concentrating or making decisions or a generalized slowing and obtunding of cognition, including memory.
* recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
Other symptoms sometimes reported but not usually taken into account in diagnosis include
* A decrease in self-esteem.
* Inattention to personal hygiene.
* Sensitivity to noise.
* Physical aches and pains, and the belief these may be signs of serious illness.
* Fear of 'going mad'.
* Change in perception of time.
(psychiatric) Generalized Anxiety Dixorder
General anxiety disorder or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about everyday things. The frequency, intensity, and duration of the worry are disproportionate to the actual source of worry, and such worry often interferes with daily functioning.
GAD sufferers often worry excessively over things such as their job, their finances, or the health of themselves and their family. However, GAD sufferers can also worry over more minor matters such as deadlines for appointments, keeping the house clean, and whether or not their workspace is properly organized.
Carpal Tunnel
In the human wrist there is a sheath of tough connective tissue which envelopes and protects one nerve (median nerve) and tendons, which attach muscles to the wrist and hand bones. The carpal tunnel is the space between this sheath (above) and the bones (below) making up the wrist and hand (carpal bones). The term 'carpal tunnel' is also used quite commonly to refer to 'carpal tunnel syndrome' which is a condition where the median nerve is pinched within the tunnel and causes pain and/or numbness of the wrist/hand, once thought to be a result of repetitive motion such as painting or typing.
Marijuana As A Substitute For Opiate Pain Killers
Marijuana is also used in the treatment of chronic pain and injury related pain. It is most often used in place of opiates when a patient is cannot be exposed to opioid drugs but has pain too severe to be treated by ibuprofen and aspirin alone. The most common reason for this substitution is in treating pain and injury suffered by recovering heroin addicts. Those with an addiction to opiates, like heroin, or a former addiction to opiates cannot take opiate painkillers without the risk of relapse back into drug addiction. For this reason, medical marijuana is sometimes recommended. Very few people are allergic to opiate painkillers, but those who are may also be recommended medical marijuana for pain.
