 | NORML News: Cannabis has “clear benefits” for HIV patients |
 NORML News, Winter 2007.
Inhaling cannabis significantly increases
daily caloric intake and
body weight in HIV-positive
patients, is well tolerated,
and does not impair subjects’
cognitive performance.
Researchers at Columbia
University in New York
assessed the efficacy of
inhaled cannabis and oral
THC (Marinol) in a group
of ten HIV-positive
patients in a doubleblind,
placebocontrolled
trial. They found that
smoking cannabis
(2.0 or 3.9 percent
THC) four times
daily “has a clear medical
benefit in HIV-positive
[subjects] by increasing food
intake and improving mood
and objective and subjective
sleep measures ... with little
evidence of discomfort and
no impairment of cognitive
performance.”
On average, patients using
higher-grade cannabis (3.9
percent) increased their body
weight by 1.1 kg over a four-day
period. Investigators said
that the administration of oral
THC produced similar weight
gains in patients, but only at
doses that were “eight times
current recommendations.”
The US Food and Drug
Administration approved the
prescription use of Marinol
to treat HIV/AIDS-related
cachexia in 1992.
Subjects in the study
reported feeling high after
using either cannabis
or Marinol , but remarked that
these effects were “positive” and “well tolerated.”
Researchers reported that
patients made far fewer requests for over-the-counter medications
while taking either cannabis
or oral THC than they did
when administered placebo.
Patients also reported that
smoking higher-strength
marijuana improved their
sleep better than oral THC.
A 2005 preliminary study
had reported that inhaling
cannabis “produce[s] substantial … increases in
food intake [in HIV+ positive
patients] without producing
adverse effects.”
Another study in 2003 reported that
cannabis use by HIV patients
is associated with increased
CD4/T-cell counts compared
to non-users.
A 2005 study found that HIV/AIDS patients who report using medical marijuana are 3.3 times more likely to adhere to their antiretroviral therapy
regimens than non-cannabis users.
More recently, researchers at San Francisco
General Hospital reported this year that inhaling cannabis significantly reduced HIV-associated
neuropathy (nerve pain) compared to placebo.
Surveys show that one out of three HIV/AIDS
patients in North America use cannabis therapeutically to combat symptoms of the disease or the side-effects of antiretroviral medications.
Sources: www.norml.org; Haney et al. J Acquir Immune Defi c Syndr 2007 Jun 21
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