Medical cannabis hits high notes for pain management, rare diseases
22-May-23 04:48:56

MUMBAI: Three-year-old Sia (name changed) was nine months old when she was diagnosed with Van der Knapp syndrome, a rare disorder in which the brain's white matter progressively starts vanishing. She couldn't 'hold' her neck in position, turn or crawl like other toddlers, and neurologists whom her techie parents consulted said there was no medicine or treatment they could offer their daughter.

At that time, the family doctor gave an unconventional advice: Try medical cannabis oil for Sia. "We followed her advice, and Sia has in the last two years developed a range of movements that our neurologist was surprised at," said her 32-year-old mother Maya.

For Shruti Shridhar, the doctor who gave Maya the advice, Sia was the first patient for whom she had prescribed medical cannabis. "When Sia's condition was diagnosed in October 2020, I started researching Van der Knapp syndrome to understand the physiology. I found a research article that mentioned CBD oil could cause neuroprotection and neurogenesis in forming of new neurons,'' she told TOI.

 

SOURCE & CREDIT: TIMES OF INDIA