PTSD

Lars
November 13, 2020

When something horrifying happens in your life, it turns your world upside down. It can be a severe accident, physical or sexual assault, childhood abuse, or exposure to traumatic events. The flashbacks, nightmares of that particular event can haunt you for the rest of your life. It becomes challenging to deal with; you will tend to inflict self-harm or even experience suicidal thoughts.

People with PTSD experience these events in their day to day life. It is a continuous challenge for people living with PTSD, which keeps them stuck in the past. PTSD makes it hard to have an everyday life; it is difficult to maintain relationships, have a career, or even perform day-to-day tasks.

What is PTSD and its symptoms?


PTSD is a mental health disorder characterized by failure to recover from a terrifying event, causing severe anxiety. It was first observed among war veterans of World wars 1 and 2 and was known by different names, such as shell shock or combat fatigue.

As mentioned above, symptoms could be flashbacks of the terrifying event, avoiding places, people who remind you of the event, and negative thinking and mood changes. You are diagnosed with PTSD if the symptoms last more than a month and the symptoms’ intensity increases.

There are various treatments available for PTSD, such as Psychotherapy, Antidepressants. However, there are no medications that are explicitly developed for PTSD. Most medicines that are used for PTSD are similar to those recommended for other psychiatric illnesses. 

Most of these treatments give side effects such as sleep disorders, weight gain, nausea, diarrhea.

Does CBD provide a solution to PTSD?


Many people who have PTSD disorder seek alternative medicine in the form of CBD, which has a therapeutic side effect profile. CBD means cannabidiol, which is found in cannabis plants and doesn’t cause you high when taken. 

A study called Use of CBD Oil in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder showed that CBD monotherapy greatly improved PTSD symptoms. The same study also showed that patients receiving CBD oil plus psychotherapy showed significantly greater improvements than patients who didn’t take CBD oil.

CBD interacts with the CB1 receptors of the endocannabinoid system that regulates fear and anxiety-related behaviors. In PTSD patients, lower serum levels of anandamide(which is synthesized in the brain that binds to cannabinoid receptors) causes stress-induced anxiety. CBD, when administered, leads to increased anandamide levels.

In simpler words, CBD targets chemical responses in the brain that produce stress, anxiety, depression, many other symptoms related to PTSD and helps reduce symptoms caused by PTSD. 

In another study, called The Use of a Synthetic Cannabinoid in the Management of Treatment‐Resistant Nightmares in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), CBD ceased or significantly reduced nightmares, flashbacks in patients with PTSD.

CBD provides a safe alternative for the treatment of PTSD by reducing symptoms, notably decreasing unpleasant memories. A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience proves this.

According to the study called, Cannabinoids as therapeutic for PTSD cannabis is a possible pharmacological intervention for PTSD.  The same study further says CBD has acute anti-depressive and anxiolytic effects.

Cannabidiol in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a study published in The Journal of alternative and complementary medicine examined the effects of CBD oral administration in adult patients with PTSD. The study concluded that the Administration of oral CBD in addition to routine psychiatric care was associated with PTSD symptom reduction in adults with PTSD.

Conclusion


PTSD is debilitating condition for which the commonly recommended treatments of antidepressants and medications do more harm than good. However, more and more research is conclusively showing that CBD is a safer and natural alternative. In fact, the 2018 the Farm Bill legalized the use of CBD derived from hemp in the U.S. The ruling was based on the evidence that it has little to no side effects. So we would highly recommend you to give CBD a try the next time you, or your loved ones, go through bouts of anxiety and stress as a result of PTSD.

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