Medical Marijuana Is A ‘Promising’ Treatment For Tourette Syndrome, New Scientific Review Concludes

A new scientific review examining the potential therapeutic effects of cannabis-based medicine on Tourette syndrome finds that medical marijuana shows “promising and potentially effective outcomes…in mitigating the severity of tics and premonitory urges.”

Authors of the literature review, published last month in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, evaluated nine studies involving 401 patients with Tourette syndrome (TS).

While authors noted that further research—involving larger samples, fixed doses and “unified drug components”—are needed to accurately estimate their effectiveness, they said the studies indicated that cannabis-based medicine (CBM) could be a promising therapy for people with TS.

“The present study suggests favorable and potentially effective results with CBM in reducing the severity of tics and premonitory urges,” they wrote, adding that the findings may be especially useful in light of the fact that patients with TS have few available treatment options.

“We found significant reductions in tic severity and premonitory urges.”

“Despite the use of various agents to reduce the frequency and severity of TS-related tics and improve the patient’s quality of life, there is a lack of high-quality evidence supporting their efficacy,” the study says. “Only three agents—haloperidol, pimozide, and aripiprazole— have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for tic control. Nevertheless, due to the absence of universal treatment, many agents, including CBM, have been suggested.”

The research included clinical trials and cohort studies, analyzing measurements before and after cannabinoid intake and assessing significance with a 95 percent confidence interval.

Of three studies involved in a meta-analysis, one “revealed a significant reduction in total scores,” another “revealed a significant decrease in scores” and a third “revealed no significant difference in score reduction” with the use of cannabis-based medicine.

Authors said they believe the research represents “the first systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of CBM among patients with TS using various scales.”

They acknowledged, however, that the data pool “was small, raising concerns about the study results’ generalizability.”

“Due to the limitations and few available studies, we could not compare the CBM group with placebo (or other drug) groups,” the report says. “Furthermore, heterogeneity was observed in some outcomes despite conducting a sensitivity analysis.”

The eight-author team behind the new study represents a number of institutions in Egypt (Mansoura University, Damanhour University, Alexandria Main University Hospital, Suez Canal University, South Valley University and Kafrelsheikh University), one in Jerusalem (Al-Quds University) and another in Poland (Poznan University of Medical Sciences).

According to the Tourette Association of America, a handful of states—including Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey and Ohio—specifically list Tourette syndrome as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Others allow certifying care providers to recommend cannabis for any condition they believe would benefit a patient or after other medications have proven ineffective.

The need to reduce barriers to research into medical marijuana in the United States, meanwhile, was one of a few key subjects raised by state regulators and other groups that submitted public comment recently as the government weighs whether to move marijuana to the less-restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.

While rescheduling itself would not legalize state-level medical marijuana or adult-use markets, it could have a variety of effects on research, taxation, government employees and more.

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