There is a fair bit of confusion as to whether or not cannabis can help against depression. There’s been quite a lot of research carried out to detect the role of cannabis in the case of treating various ailments like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Dravet’s syndrome and many more. In case of depression marijuana is believed to have a great role on reducing the stress in a weekly basis and studies have found patients are prone to having a less stressful life. Even though there have been so many clinical studies about marijuana, some states are still lagging behind in legalizing this wonder plant. Though this plant origin is of central Asian, it’s a highly debated issue. Here is some of the hypothesis that were drawn, based on various studies with cannabis and depression.
Research on depression related deaths
As an example of marijuana fighting against depression. Marijuana is helping patients release stress, there have actually been a decreases in the rate of suicides by five percent, ranging in the age of fifteen to nineteen year old males in the states that legalized marijuana; in comparison to the ones that didn’t. The real effects are seen amount the age group of 20-29 year old males, where we see a decreased rate of suicide at 11 percent and in the age group of 30-39 year old males it was decreased by 9 percent. This decrease was noticed after the legalization was done. In this survey a conclusion was drawn that this effect was due to the potential power of marijuana, to reduce affinity for alcohol consumption and abnormal behavior.
Different kinds of Depression
Another use of cannabis as a medicine (when used in a limited amount) was found that cannabis calms a patient down and fights against depression. Marijuana helps relieve the pain to a great extent thereby indirectly reducing stress and depression. It was found that many patients who were on opiates, pain killers, tranquilizers, insomnia pills and other anti-depressants could actually come off them after they started the use of marijuana in a limited amounts, to relieve their stress and pain. Sometimes Medical Marijuana is better than trying to use these pharmaceutical drugs.
To conclude, Cannabis can help against depression, a research was carried out including non-users of marijuana. They found that the patients who tried marijuana a couple of times, showed low levels of symptoms of depression compared to the ones who never touched the Marijuana. It was also observed that those who used cannabis on a weekly basis had more positive effects on their mood, whereas before the patient might have felt depressed.
There is surely more investigation needed, as to whether cannabis can help as an anti- depressant before we can label Medical Marijuana as an anti-depressant permanently but, it has made its mark in relieving pain in many various ailments.