Therapeutic uses of cannabinoides

At the present time, there are two cannabinoids approved for clinical use in several countries. Dronabinol or D9tetrahidrocannabinol (THC) and its classical synthetic analogue nabilone for antineoplastic chemotherapy-induced secondary nausea and vomiting which does not respond to the usual treatment but their place in therapeutics as an antiemetic has been questioned because there is no available data from clinical trials comparing them with standard treatment (serotonine inhibitors). Dronabinol is also approved in certain countries for anorexia associated with weight loss in AIDS patients. Although current preclinical research is developing new pharmaceuticals that interact with the cannabinoid system, clinical research is concentrating principally on THC and standardised cannabis extracts (which mainly contain THC and cannabidiol). Clinical trials suggest that the cannabidiols could be effective in the symptomatic treatment of neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis (MS) and in the tics associated with the Giles de la Tourette syndrome and certain dyskinesias, but the results of studies in progress are necessary to be able to draw better founded conclusions. As for the symptomatic treatment of MS, the cannabinoids have not been shown to be effective against spasticity in accordance with objective variables but certain data points to there being an improvement in the subjective sensation of rigidity, pain and the sleep quality in these patients but further clinical trails must be undertaken to confirm this.