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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Is Medical Marijuana Safe To Take For Chiari Malformation?

hi i have chiari malformation and i want to know if i can use medical marijuana instead of going to pain managment or narcotics and if its gonna affect my condition, i hVE TWO WEEKS TO DECIDE IF I WANT THE SURGERY TO BE DONE BUT I HAVE FOR KIDS UNDER AGE OF 6 TWO AUTISTIC SO I DONT KNOW WHAT I SHOULD DO IF HAVE THE SURGERY OR JUST STAY LIKE THIS??
posted on Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Twitter Sat, 2 May 2015 Answered on
Twitter Mon, 4 May 2015 Last reviewed on
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Addiction Medicine Specialist,  's  Response
it's a really good question. Frankly there's a slight concern on everything including over the counter ibuprofen on its effects.
Increased intracranial pressure... certainly occurs with narcotic overdose, not so much on usual doses. if there's build up of co2 from not breathing, then intracranial pressure increases.

diamox may be useful in testing whether surgery might work....this is a controversial statement and flow studies are probably more often used.

Marijuana... is not a pain drug per se, but helps many people with pain.
There is one (1) report of a possible interaction between chiari and marijuana to produce psychiatric illness but you can't really say if the marijuana didnt' do it all by itself
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=marijuana+chiari

And... some people (not most, not common) with chiari have neurological deterioration that the surgery would prevent (slowly progressing over time from increased intracranial pressure).
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Is Medical Marijuana Safe To Take For Chiari Malformation?

it s a really good question. Frankly there s a slight concern on everything including over the counter ibuprofen on its effects. Increased intracranial pressure... certainly occurs with narcotic overdose, not so much on usual doses. if there s build up of co2 from not breathing, then intracranial pressure increases. diamox may be useful in testing whether surgery might work....this is a controversial statement and flow studies are probably more often used. Marijuana... is not a pain drug per se, but helps many people with pain. There is one (1) report of a possible interaction between chiari and marijuana to produce psychiatric illness but you can t really say if the marijuana didnt do it all by itself http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=marijuana+chiari And... some people (not most, not common) with chiari have neurological deterioration that the surgery would prevent (slowly progressing over time from increased intracranial pressure).