Autism and Medical Marijuana

[Sequoiacrone]

Autism and Medical Marijuana


Some families have found marijuana (mmj) to be nothing short of miraculous. Some of the symptoms MMJ has ameliorated include anxiety--even severe anxiety--aggression, panic disorder, generalized rage, tantrums, property destruction and self-injurious behavior.
One mother's comments:
"I know it's not the end all answer but it's been the best answer for the longest time for us in regards to ALL the other medications. I cannot tell you how many months we would go on a medication wondering if it was doing anything, anything at all. Here we can see the difference in 30-60 minutes guaranteed."
Another:
"My son (who is almost nine years of age) has been on medications to address his severe autistic behaviors including aggression and throwing fits over trivial issues in the environment. He has been difficult to instruct due to these behaviors. None of the medications has ever made a difference, except for making his behaviors worse. He has been through the whole range starting at three and a half with ritalin and dexedrine, and going through prozac, paxil, clonidine, naltrexone, adderall and risperdal. Finally, we gave up on medications and decided to manage his behaviors through behavioral techniques. We had mixed results.
A few months ago we tried the prescription drug Marinol and noticed a drop in the severe episodes, no fits and little to no aggression towards his teacher and family members on a daily basis. A few weeks ago we started him on cannabis and stopped the Marinol. He has been in a much better mood and is much easier to keep on task in the classroom now. There has not been a major fit since he started the Marinol, and the cannabis seems to work just as well with his behaviors and he is now much more easier for his therapists to manage during instruction.
It is not a cure, but just a tool to make things go smoother and prevent disruptions in his learning. He still has days when he gets angry and moody, but we can adjust the dose to help him through those days. It is such a mild medication and there are no long term side effects that can damage the body's organs. I feel much more comfortable administering cannabis (http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/index_se_cmu.htm)) than something like risperdal.
Autism is an unpredictable disorder and even though major behaviors are constants, autistic people have different degrees of their behaviors from day to day. We can tell when he might need an extra dose to get him through a rough day, and due to the fact that there is no toxic overdose, we do not have to be overly concerned with safety issues." --From a less stressed out mom

Please consult your autism specialist in all cases, we are posting this article for information ONLY.
To read the rest of this article from the autism institute:
http://www.autism.org/marijuana.html

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Autism Research Review International, 2003, Vol. 17, No. 1, page 3
Medical marijuana: a valuable treatment for autism?

Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Autism Research Institute
4182 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116

I am certainly not an advocate for drugs-either legal or illicit. I have never smoked and I don’t care at all for alcohol. And I agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes when he said, “I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk to the bottom of the sea it would all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes.”

Having said that:
In ARRI 16-2 we published a letter from a mother in Florida whose very large autistic son changed from a sweet, loving boy to a teenager who flew into unpredictable rages which “were usually associated with self injury, aggression and property damage.” She went on, “At times I had to lock myself in the bathroom; otherwise he would attack me. We gave him many medications, but nothing worked.”

A friend suggested a solution: a brownie with marijuana baked into it. “Soon after he ate the brownie,” she said, “my son’s anxiety disappeared, and his sweet, loving behavior returned. He shows no signs of being under the influence of a drug. He now receives one marijuana brownie and several doses of Marinol, which contains the active ingredient in marijuana, each day. This has clearly saved my child’s life and my family’s life.”

On page 7 of this issue of the ARRI you will find a letter from Ray Gallup, a well-known autism activist in New Jersey whose teenage son has become extremely assaultive, sending members of his family to the hospital and requiring police intervention on a number of occasions. Like Ray, thousands of parents are dealing with children who are so out-of-control, and so violent to themselves and others, that they can make their own lives and that of their families hellish.

In ARRI 16-1 we published an editorial on various means of dealing with such severely self-injurious and assaultive behavior, but marijuana use was not an approach that we mentioned. Many drugs are used to control these kinds of behaviors in autistic individuals, including risperidone (Risperdal), which has a large range of highly toxic effects (ARRI 16-4). It seems to me if one is going to need to use drugs, one ought to consider a relatively safe drug, like marijuana, if research bears out the good results that a number of parents have reported.

I use the term “relatively safe” because marijuana and Marinol, the prescription drug that contains the active marijuana ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), do cause adverse effects-but these effects, evidence suggests, are generally much less harmful than those caused by psychotropic drugs. Marijuana may cause subtle long-term memory and cognitive decrements, although evidence is equivocal (see related article on page 4). The drug can cause cardiovascular problems including abnormally high or low blood pressure, fainting, or abnormal heartbeat, can exacerbate depression or other mental changes in vulnerable individuals, and can cause nausea, vomiting, weakness, or sedation. The word is still out as to whether orally ingested marijuana is carcinogenic (although there is some evidence suggesting that it is anti-carcinogenic), and there is some concern that it can precipitate schizophrenic symptoms in some individuals. Also, the drug can cause dependency and possibly birth defects.

Clearly, medical marijuana is not a drug to be administered lightly. But compare its side effects to the known effects of Risperdal, which include massive weight gain, a dramatically increased risk of diabetes, and an elevated risk of deadly heart problems, as well as a host of other major and minor problems. Other psychotropic drugs are no safer, causing symptoms ranging from debilitating tardive dyskinesia to life-threatening malignant hyperthermia or sudden cardiac arrest. Of all drugs, the psychotropic drugs are among the least useful and most dangerous, and the benefit/risk profile of medical marijuana seems fairly benign in comparison.

Moreover, the reports we are seeing from parents indicate that medical marijuana often works when no other treatments, drug or non-drug, have helped. Among the comments received by a parent soliciting feedback from other parents who are using this treatment for autistic individuals:

To read the rest of this article and find more research....start here:
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/newsletter/marijuana.htm

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THE SAM PROJECT: James D.


This is the story of the Sam Project, but probably not the last word.

I have a very large, teenage autistic son. James D. is extremely anxious most of the time. Over time, James developed frequent and unpredictable rages. These rages increased in intensity and frequency, encompassing property destruction, aggression, some SIBs, and a number of police visits. Big and pissed, size does matter! James reached the point of severe anxiety and explosive rage 24/7. Life with our son became close to impossible.

For myself, I spent a lot time locked behind a solid core door. Later I bought pepper spray and finally a stun gun. The pepper spray was completely ineffective. James never noticed it, he never even coughed. That is perhaps a good way to describe these rages, that pepper spray had no impact whatsoever.

One of my friends, also the mother of an autistic child, who calls me from time to time, later told me that my voice sounded so stressed and different. I did not sound like myself. One night, she called and said that she and her husband were driving over to see us for a few minutes. She gave me some cupcakes and told me to give one to James when life was tough, and if he needed it, give him another.

Snap your fingers, a miracle happened for us! No more rage, reduced anxiety, no constant deafening noise and no house rocking and rolling. Those cupcakes had marijuana baked into them. This marijuana was left over from a dying wolf dog named Sam. Sam was the family pet, suffering with a brain tumor. My friend eased her dying dog by putting marijuana into his food. The cupcakes were made with left overs after Sam's dying. So, really, Sam saved my son's life, and our family's life.

My son now uses 2 1/2 mg of Marinol up to four times a day, and one brownie up to four times a day. We try to keep the dose to a minimum, because many days he is able to get by on less medication. When he has not had enough medication we have Los Tormiento, a storm. We are able to recover now, but in the past this was not the case.


for the complete story....
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/articles/james_d.htm

[Sequoiacrone]

Sam’s Story: Using Medical Cannabis to Treat Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background on Sam
Sam is an eight-year-old male. He was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Delay- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) when he was two and one-half years old by a pediatric psychiatrist at the M.I.N.D. Institute, UC Davis Medical Center. He was re-diagnosed at the M.I.N.D. Institute in October of 2007 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As the psychiatrist told Sam’s mom and I, “Sam is a poster child for ASD”. Sam has lowered cognitive abilities and lowered verbal skills. Sam lives with his mom, dad and his younger sister who is six years of age. She is a typical child with no physical or mental health issues.
Sam was adopted at birth. He had no prenatal issues and was a healthy infant. At around 18 months of age he began exhibiting ASD like behaviors and after six months of reassurances by his primary doctors that he was fine Sam was diagnosed with ASD. Since his diagnoses he has received special education services, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy. He had been on the Gluten-Casein Free Diet (GCFD). He has been treated by a doctor (supposedly one of the best in the country) who treats ASD patients following the Defeat Autism Now (DAN) protocol which emphasizes a “BioMedical” approach established by Dr. Rimland the founder of Autism Society of America and the Autism Research Institute in San Diego, CA.
As a family we have spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to help Sam. Even though as a teacher I have full coverage insurance, many of the services and doctors Sam has seen are not covered under my plan. Blue Cross of California still categorizes ASD as a “mental illness” instead of an “organic disorder” which precludes it from receiving the coverage a typical physical illness would be granted. I only mention this because since Sam was diagnosed with ASD we have devoted ourselves to helping him. This devotion has been in the forms of time, effort, education, therapy cost, medical costs, conferences, parent support groups, and most importantly love.
Sam’s Strengths
Sam loves people and he loves to “be on the go”. He has been to Disneyland four times, been camping many times, and has been to San Diego to visit the zoo, Wild Animal Park and Sea World. Sam loves to go to San Francisco Giant and Sacramento Kings games and loves to travel to San Francisco. Sam is our gift from God and we love him just as he is. Many tears have been shed from worry and from the joy of watching Sam achieve things parents of typical children take for granted. There have many moments of laughter and warmth given to us by our quirky, sweet, lovable, little boy.
Purpose of this Journal




For the rest of this very important journal please see here:
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/SamsStory.htm

[Sequoiacrone]

The results were immediate.

"Within a half hour," Debbie says, "I looked over at Jeffrey, and he just had this smile about him, this glow, and he said, 'Mommy, I feel happy.' And that’s the first time that he’s ever said that."

Just how the marijuana is helping Jeff is not completely clear. "His brainwaves don't connect the way ours do," Debbie says of her son. "The marijuana is allowing him, somehow. It's filling in the gap in there for him, so he is learning how to manage his anger."

But Child Protective Services had a different opinion, and they opened an investigation. Debbie says they are accusing her of being an unfit mother and putting her son at risk.

Part of the problem is that Dr. Alkalay never saw Jeff before prescribing him the marijuana. The doctor says he was comfortable with that because "I know it's a very safe medication."

Child Protective Services is taking Debbie to court where a judge could stop Debbie from giving marijuana to her son. If that happens, Debbie says she won’t be able to control him, and will lose her son to the custody of the state.

"I’m not a criminal," says Debbie. "I’m a mother who cares for her child and will do anything to help her child."

The Result

In just under an hour at a closed-session juvenile court hearing, the judge dismissed the case against Debbie.

This story is from a 2000 article and you can read the entire story here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/05/48hours/main503022.shtml

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(http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/taxonomy/term/20)
Marijuana For Mental Health

by Julie Chadwick, Cannabis Culture. Posted on Wednesday, April 15 2009 03:05:29 PM

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Debbie Jeffries (http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/category/article-tags/debbie-jeffries)
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http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/files/images/ccfeatureblue.jpg (http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/category/article-tags/cc-features)CANNABIS CULTURE - Though science has much left to explore, evidence suggests cannabis can be a powerful medication in treating psychiatric, behavioral and emotional disorders.
It was with skepticism that I first heard of marijuana having psychiatric applications, other than the purely recreational. http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/files/images/OnTheMind.img_assist_custom-250x212.jpg (http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/files/images/OnTheMind.jpg)Illustration by Marijuana Man My boyfriend at the time had an unpredictable, explosive temper, and was convinced a severe head injury in his youth had rendered his brain forever altered, which he remedied by smoking copious amounts of weed. Before long, it was evident to me that he was simply a different person when he smoked; witty and hospitable, rather than anxious and manipulative. Gone was the violent anger and in its place was, for a lack of a better word - normalcy.
Little did I know that I was witnessing but the tip of the psychiatric iceberg of marijuana's potential for the mind. The questions it raised for me then still stand today, and are characteristic of what we know (or more accurately, don't know) about both psychiatry and marijuana: how exactly does it work on the brain? Can it treat physical or neurological brain damage, or was it, in the case of my ex, easing the symptoms of an underlying emotional problem? Or was it something else entirely?
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Throughout history, the study of cannabis has proved to be an elusive and experimental practice, and its illegality has only hindered the process more. With the isolation of cannabinoids, the active compounds in marijuana and the discovery of the body's own corresponding endocannabinoid system in the early 90's, many strides have been made – most notably in the medical arena. Even marijuana virgins have heard reference to its application for cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and an endless list of physical ailments.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the brain and the use of cannabis in treating psychiatric, behavioral and emotional disorders, much of the research by and large simply isn’t there – not for a lack of evidence, but because it hasn’t been conducted on any large scale other than in clinical studies.
Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School, is an icon in the field of marijuana research. As the result of a long and distinguished career, Grinspoon has a wealth of clinical anecdotes, although this gives his colleagues reason to admonish him.
“Everybody [says] ‘Well, that’s just anecdotal evidence, Grinspoon! You don’t have a double-blind controlled study,’” mimics Grinspoon with a laugh. “Well, we can’t! It’s illegal material. But what we do have is a lot of clinical descriptions that didn’t just appear after the advent of the double-blind study in the mid-60's. Look at all that we knew before then, about Crohn's disease, or about migraines – about all the many things we knew about marijuana, that came before double-blind studies. And people are still discovering the ways in which marijuana is useful clinically.”
“Any symptom or syndrome I would recommend marijuana for - ” continues Grinspoon, “let’s say you come in with Crohn’s disease. I can’t say it would absolutely help you, but I can say to you that there is a quite reasonable probability that it will be helpful to you based on my clinical experience, which is all anecdotal.”
I ask him about Tourette's Syndrome, a particularly intriguing neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by physical and vocal tics.
“Well, I think it's quite miraculous for these folks. I had a patient who came up here from some southern state because I hadn't listed [Tourette's Syndrome] in the first edition of my book because I hadn't heard of it,” remembers Grinspoon, “and to overcome my skepticism, this delightful young man came up to Harvard to come into my office. We took a bit of a chance, at Harvard,” he chuckles, in reference to the man's lighting up a joint in his office. “He had a few puffs of a joint, and I saw him kicking, there, he had a bad tic. And within a matter of seconds he stopped kicking completely, he talked smoothly... it was a dramatic demonstration.”
One of the smaller studies, conducted in Germany by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Cannabis als Medizin (Association for Cannabis as Medicine), alludes to the success Grinspoon witnessed, citing an 85% efficacy rate in the Tourette's patients they surveyed.
Grinspoon oversees two websites that boast hundreds of patient accounts, many of which reference the psychiatric use of marijuana, not just for neurological but also behavioral and emotional disorders. Grinspoon is the first to admit the shortcomings of the anecdotal method, saying, “tell me about the people who have tried it and don't get relief – they don't write and say, 'hey I tried it and it's not good for me'.” However, the medical hurdles some people are forced to face are no small feat, and when they are adamant that marijuana that has helped them when all other medications have failed, their stories take on even more significance.
In the treatment of behavioral disorders, there is no story more compelling than that of Debbie Jeffries, whose son Jeffrey began to display disturbing symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and unusual temper tantrums at only nine months old.
“If his bottle didn't look right to him, if he didn't get the exact amount of food that he wanted, or if the food on his plate wasn't placed where he wanted it, or the colour combinations weren't right, if his shoes weren't tied correctly, the loops weren't the right size, he had horrific anger fits,” recalls Debbie.
By the time Jeffrey was three years old he had been in and out of multiple daycare a centers for fighting and misbehaving, and it was gently suggested to Debbie that she look into medicating Jeffrey. “I was like, wow... okay, I know he's a handful but...” she recalls. “I didn't know anything about medicine for any type of mental illness or whatever it was going on with him. But my goal was, 'if I can make this child happy, I will do whatever it takes'. And that is how it's been even since before he was born. I will do anything to make sure he has life.”
Jeffrey was diagnosed with a range of disorders from ADHD to anxiety, which his doctor suggested medicating with Ritalin. When that proved ineffective, he was launched on an ever-shifting merry-go-round of pharmaceutical drugs, many prescribed to simply counteract the side effects of the original medications. “It was like, is this ever going to end?” sighs Debbie. “Is this ever going to help him?” Jeffrey's problems, rather than ceasing, simply worsened.
“At one point he was in a daycare and he threw a desk at a teacher – when he was four years old – because he was mad at her. He hit her in the face with a shovel... he would fight with kids all the time,”
Debbie remembers calmly, adding that she woke up one morning to find her son strangling her.
Finally, with every possible drug option exhausted, the doctors decided to admit five-year-old Jeffrey into the first of what became several psychiatric hospitals, but his deterioration continued. A new state-of-the-art facility for the study of autism called the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC Davis asked Debbie to bring Jeffrey in for neurological testing. On their second visit, Jeffrey became so agitated that he threw a chair at the researcher when he entered the room. “And they dismissed us from the study!” exclaims Debbie incredulously. “I felt like we were being given up on.”
By seven years old, Jeffrey was in a residential home that offered one-on-one support, and was on suicide watch because of his harsh medications. The situation was getting desperate, and Debbie and Jeffrey were at the end of their ropes, figuratively and literally: Jeffrey had been found in his room with a sheet tied around his neck. Child Protective Services gave Debbie an ultimatum: find a cure for him in thirty days or we will institutionalize him forever.
Read More....


http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/marijuana-mental-health

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Health & Science (http://www.doublex.com/section/healthscience)

Why I Give My 9-year-old Pot

He has autism and a medical marijuana license.


Posted: Monday, May 11, 09 11:34pm
By Marie Myung-Ok Lee (http://www.doublex.com/users/marie-lee)


http://www.doublex.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large-image/090512_xx_Marie%20Lee.JPG


Question: why are we giving our nine-year-old a marijuana cookie?
Answer: because he can't figure out how to use a bong.





My son J has autism. He’s also had two serious surgeries for a spinal cord tumor and has an inflammatory bowel condition, all of which may be causing him pain, if he could tell us. He can say words, but many of them—"duck in the water, duck in the water"—don't convey what he means. For a time, anti-inflammatory medication seemed to control his pain. But in the last year, it stopped working. He began to bite and to smack the glasses off my face. If you were in that much pain, you’d probably want to hit someone, too.
J's school called my husband and me in for a meeting about J's tantrums, which were affecting his ability to learn. The teachers were wearing tae kwon do arm pads to protect themselves against his biting. Their solution was to hand us a list of child psychiatrists. Since autistic children like J can’t exactly do talk therapy, this meant sedating, antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal—Thorazine for kids.
Last year, Risperdal was prescribed for more than 389,000 children—240,000 of them under the age of 12—for bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism, and other disorders. Yet the drug has never been tested for long-term safety (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E3DA1539F93AA25752C1A96E9C8B 63&sec=&spon=) in children and carries a severe warning of side effects. From 2000 to 2004, 45 pediatric deaths were attributed to Risperdal and five other popular drugs also classified as “atypical antipsychotics,” according to a review (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-01-atypical-drugs_x.htm) of FDA data by USA Today. When I canvassed parents of autistic children who take Risperdal, I didn't hear a single story of an improvement that seemed worth the risks. A 2002 study specifically looking at the use of Risperdal for autism, in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed moderate improvements in “autistic irritation”—but if you read more closely, the study followed only 49 children over eight weeks, which, researchers admitted, “limits inferences about adverse effects.”
We met with J's doctor, who’d read the studies and agreed: No Risperdal or its kin.
The school called us in again. What were we going to do, they asked. As a sometimes health writer and blogger (http://greenfertility.blogspot.com/), I was intrigued when a homeopath suggested medical marijuana. Cannabis has long-documented effects as an analgesic and an anxiety modulator. Best of all, it is safe. The homeopath referred me to a publication (http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/ed_marijuana.htm) by the Autism Research Institute describing cases of reduced aggression, with no permanent side effects. Rats given 40 times the psychoactive level merely fall sleep. Dr. Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who has been researching cannabis for 40 years, says he has yet to encounter a case of marijuana causing a death, even from lung cancer.
A prescription drug called Marinol, which contains a synthetic cannabinoid, seemed mainstream enough to bring up with J’s doctor. I cannot say that with a few little pills, everything turned around. But after about a week of playing around with the dosage, J began garnering a few glowing school reports: “J was a pleasure have in speech class,” instead of “J had 300 aggressions today.”
But J tends to build tolerance to synthetics, and in a few months, we could see the aggressive behavior coming back. One night, I went to the meeting of a medical marijuana patient advocacy group on the campus of the college where I teach. The patients told me that Marinol couldn’t compare to marijuana, the plant, which has at least 60 cannabinoids to Marinol’s one.
Rhode Island, where we live, is one of 13 states where the use of medical marijuana is legal. But I was resistant. My late father was an anesthesiologist, and compared with the precise drugs he worked with, I know he would think marijuana to be ridiculously imprecise and unscientific. I looked at my son’s tie-dye socks (his avowed favorite). At his school, I was already the weirdo mom who packed lunches with organic kale and kimchi and wouldn't let him eat any “fun” foods with artificial dyes. Now, I’d be the mom who shunned the standard operating procedure and gave her kid pot instead.


please read the entire article here:

http://www.doublex.com/section/health-science/why-i-give-my-9-year-old-pot