Hepatitis C and Medical Marijuana
"Patients with even mild cases of Hepatitis C often experience nonspecific and intermittent symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, poor appetite, fatigue, depression, muscle and joint pains, weight loss, and mild right-upper-quadrant discomfort or tenderness. These symptoms may become more pronounced and chronic as the disease progresses.
Drug therapy for Hepatitis C usually consists of the use of combination therapy with alpha interferon and ribavirin in those patients where such therapy is indicated. Common side effects of treatment (occurring in more than 10 percent of patients) include: nausea and vomiting, depression, irritability, weight loss, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, and low-grade fever. Substance abuse relapse is often a common result of the therapy due to the psychological side effects. Flare-ups of pre-existing auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease are common. Marijuana can mitigate the majority of these side effects as well as offering effective help to those patients where alpha-interferon treatment is not indicated.
There is compelling evidence that cannabis is an effective antiemetic, anti-inflammatory, immune modulating, analgesic and anti spasmodic agent. These properties are indicated for patients suffering from Hepatitis C. Side effects from the use of medical marijuana are much milder than the side effects of the traditional drugs used to treat Hepatitis C. Many patients who use cannabis report they are able to continue the use of their prescription medications only when the side effect can be mitigated with cannabis. Marijuana also has recognized anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and stress reducing qualities which ease psychological symptoms and side effects as well as helping to prevent substance abuse relapse. Cannabis has the ability to stimulate appetite, which many Hepatitis C patients find beneficial. Patients without prescription insurance find the ability to grow their own medicine at little or no cost to be an additional benefit."
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Published Research Articles:
Cannabis use improves retention and virological outcomes in patients treated for hepatitis C. Sylvestrea et al, 2006.
Objectives: Despite the widespread use of polypharmacy, the management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment-related side-effects is often incomplete, and many patients turn to cannabis for symptom relief. Unfortunately, there are few data about cannabis use on treatment outcomes, leaving clinicians without the data needed to inform recommendations.
Methods: To define the impact of cannabis use during HCV treatment, we conducted a prospective observational study of standard interferon and ribavirin treatment in 71 recovering substance users, of whom 22 (31%) used cannabis and 49 (69%) did not.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that modest cannabis use may offer symptomatic and virological benefit to some patients undergoing HCV treatment by helping them maintain adherence to the challenging medication regimen.