Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition which refers to a group of symptoms including poor motor and muscle control, weakness, developmental problems, spasticity and sometimes paralysis.
Researchers believe there are many causes and factors that can contribute to cerebral palsy in new-borns or infants. When a cause is known, it can include reduced blood circulation to the brain during pregnancy, oxygen deprivation, infections affecting the brain or damage due to other illnesses, or brain injury that takes place during delivery.
There are four general categories of cerebral palsy, which have some overlaps but are different from one another due to the symptoms that tend to occur.
Cerebral palsy remains an incurable disorder. Research on medical cannabis and cerebral palsy is still limited, but findings from previous studies suggest that it offers a host of benefits, including pain control, reduction of spastic movements, seizures reduction, and more. In 2011, a study with 83 cerebral palsy participations used 23 different types of medications for pain, including medical cannabis. The legs, lower back, and hips, were reported as being the most common areas of pain among the participants. According to the study, ‘the treatment that was rated as providing the most relief, was marijuana’.
Although more data is needed, the few studies conducted on medical cannabis and spastic quadriplegia symptoms indicate that it offers numerous therapeutic benefits. For example, a study published by NIH in 2007 states that clinical experience and animal studies showed that the active constituents in marijuana helped to control partial seizures, which are usual in people with spastic quadriplegia.
Another study published in 2014 showed cannabis to be effective in reducing painful muscle spasms. Although the study focused on people who experienced muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis, spasms are one of the most common symptoms of people with cerebral palsy.
Though high-quality clinical trials of cannabis medicines are few, the time has come that doctors and medical researchers looked into cannabinoid treatments for Cerebral Palsy.