Cannabis for ADHD

A few months ago I doctor who's a friend of mine told me about her experience in treating ADHD with cannabis. Of course, lots of teenagers and adults who have ADHD use marijuana. It's not a radical idea. But there's apparently a lot of medical sense to it for some people.

Here's my best read on how pot may work for people who suffer attention deficit disorders. As usual, work with professionals. Your doctor and your dispensary are your best source of answers. This article may point you to the right questions.

Marijuana use is common among teens and young adults who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but what is often overlooked is that using cannabis sometimes results in behavior that is more, rather than less, conventional and consistent with social norms.

A trio of German researchers reported the case of a German man, 28 years old, who had a long history of traffic violations, especially for running red lights. His traffic violations had become so numerous and dangerous that he had been ordered by the courts to get psychiatric treatment. The doctors dutifully put him on methylphenidate (Ritalin) and gave him psychiatric counseling. The treatment did not work.

When the youthful traffic violator was referred to the doctors in the study, he was initially uncooperative. Prior to his first interview, he had been warned not to arrive showing signs of having smoked pot. He was pushy, demanding, and rude, drumming his fingers on the table and leaning over when he spoke with the psychiatrists, showing no interest in their suggestions of how he might improve his driving. He constantly shifted his position in his chair. After a few minutes he grabbed the table as if to turn it over, and shouted that he needed his driver’s license and he needed cannabis. He was not interested in further discussion. As a result, the doctors were not able to give him scheduled psychiatric tests.

At the end of the interview, however, there was a transformation. The doctors informed the man that they would not recommend his driver’s license be renewed unless he changed his behavior. To help him do this, they offered him a prescription for dronabinol (THC in prescription form), assuring him that he would get more THC from the medication than from pot. The next time the man arrived at the psychiatrists’ office he was calm but not groggy, organized, and open to suggestions for improvement. He argued passionately but not unreasonably that he needed THC, and agreed to accept a rehab program (conducted on an outpatient basis) as part of a long path to getting back his driver’s license.

To the doctors’ considerable surprise, tests of reaction time and driving skills given to the man when he was on THC showed no “driving under the influence,” while without marijuana his driving skills had been so impaired he lost his license. To the doctors’ further surprise, blood analysis showed that the man had a very high concentration of THC in his bloodstream, and hair analysis showed he got it from smoking pot, not from using dronabinol. Later the man admitted he had been smoking extra pot because it was cheaper than dronabinol, which was not covered by the national health insurance plan.

What Is the Evidence that Cannabis Is Useful in Treating ADHD?

The use of marijuana in treating ADHD started with users sharing stories of their success with narrow-leaf varieties in the 1990’s. Medical researchers were slower to recognize the value of THC for ADHD, at first noting that it was helpful for people with ADHD who were hooked on cocaine. Recently (in 20150) there has been some research with MRI brain scans that found that the parts of the brain involved in inhibiting impulsive behavior, the right hippocampus and cerebellar vermis, respond more strongly to marijuana use in people who have ADHD than in people who do not. The most recent research available as this book is being written confirm that students who use marijuana “robustly” earn lower grade point averages, but there is at least increasingly case evidence that marijuana helps adults avoid the most serious consequences of lacking impulse control.

How Is Cannabis Used in Treating ADHD?

The key to success in using marijuana to treat ADHD is holding back on doses. Getting less than 2. 5 mg of THC per use, and not using marijuana more often than once every 90 minutes, is critical to encouraging focus without inducing psychoactive effects. Orally administered products are not as easy to dose as smoke. It’s easy to overdose if you vape.

Different strains affect ADHD in different ways. For attention deficit, high-CBD varieties such Charlotte’s Web and Avidekel clear the mind and refocus attention, but not everyone with ADHD reacts well to them. If the problem can be resolved with just a little stimulation to help focus kick in, then Neville’s Haze and Trainwreck may be a better selection.

If hyperactivity is the problem, then the key chemicals may be linalool, needed in higher concentrations, and myrcene, which should be avoided. Amnesia Haze, G13, LA Confidential, Lavender contain high amounts of linalool and may be helpful. It is important to avoid El Niño, Himalayan Gold, Pure Kush, Skunk #1, and White Widow because they contain too much myrcene. However, given that action of marijuana in these cases of ADHD depends on linalool, found in lavender, and myrcene, which is found in parsley, thyme, and ylang-ylang, one could also expect aromatherapy with essential oils of these herbs to have a similar benefit.

Photo credit: Greatpatton, via Wikimedia Commons.