and Appetite Disorders



CACHEXIA AND APPETITE DISORDERS


The ability of cannabis medicines to encourage appetite is part of popular culture: the “munchies.” Cachexia was once the least controversial medicinal property of cannabis, but not always the best understood. Some forms of cachexia, especially ones associated with advanced cancer, may not respond to cannabis. The 2006 clinical study of cannabis with advanced cancer patients, conducted by the Cannabis in Cachexia Study Group, was discontinued when cannabis showed little advantage over the placebo, and produced more side effects. While this was only one study, it has been widely cited as evidence that cannabis is of little use in cancer cachexia, though this remains disputed.29



Historical Uses


Cannabis as an appetite stimulant is recognized in ancient Chinese and Indian medical traditions. Cannabis is cited in later Indian Ayurvedic medical texts as increasing the digestive fire.30 It was also used in British nineteenth-century patent medicines intended to stimulate appetite. The modern medical marijuana movement began in the early 1980s, when it was noted that marijuana use increased the appetite of patients suffering from AIDS.


Description


Cachexia, also known as wasting syndrome, results in emaciation, weakness, and fatigue. It is currently characterized by skeletal muscle loss with or without the loss of fat tissue.31

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Jun 24, 2016 | Posted by in PHARMACY | Comments Off on and Appetite Disorders

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