Is Cannabis of Potential Value as a Therapeutic for Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Theater as a Site of Resistance in Haresh Sharma's Good People: Questioning Authorities and Contesting Truths in the Clinic

Good People, by Singaporean playwright Haresh Sharma, unmasks racial and religious tensions between Singapore's increasingly diverse racial groups and the attendant ramifications on the healthcare ecosystem and the doctor-patient relationship. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's notion of heterotopia, this paper argues that, in Good People, Sharma employs theater as a site of resistance by calling into question state and medical authority. First, state authority is challenged through the play's scrutiny of the ideological principle of multiculturalism and its usefulness in fostering meaningful cross-cultural exchanges and acceptance of different cultural and religious beliefs in the clinic. Second, the play destabilizes medical authority by surfacing the complex relationship between the doctor's unconscious biases, racial and religious prejudice, and clinical judgment, thereby casting doubt on medicine's claims of objectivity. In doing so, this paper argues, the play resists simplistic binary categorizations of the behaviors and motivations of the characters into good/bad or right/wrong, instead raising questions about power, knowledge, and contesting truths within the confines of the cultural space of a hospice.

The Endocannabinoid System: A Potential Target for the Treatment of Various Diseases

The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) is primarily responsible for maintaining homeostasis, a balance in internal environment (temperature, mood, and immune system) and energy input and output in living, biological systems. In addition to regulating physiological processes, the ECS directly influences anxiety, feeding behaviour/appetite, emotional behaviour, depression, nervous functions, neurogenesis, neuroprotection, reward, cognition, learning, memory, pain sensation, fertility, pregnancy, and pre-and post-natal development. The ECS is also involved in several pathophysiological diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. In recent years, genetic and pharmacological manipulation of the ECS has gained significant interest in medicine, research, and drug discovery and development. The distribution of the components of the ECS system throughout the body, and the physiological/pathophysiological role of the ECS-signalling pathways in many diseases, all offer promising opportunities for the development of novel cannabinergic, cannabimimetic, and cannabinoid-based therapeutic drugs that genetically or pharmacologically modulate the ECS via inhibition of metabolic pathways and/or agonism or antagonism of the receptors of the ECS. This modulation results in the differential expression/activity of the components of the ECS that may be beneficial in the treatment of a number of diseases. This manuscript in-depth review will investigate the potential of the ECS in the treatment of various diseases, and to put forth the suggestion that many of these secondary metabolites of Cannabis sativa L. (hereafter referred to as "C. sativa L." or "medical cannabis"), may also have potential as lead compounds in the development of cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals for a variety of diseases.

Evidence supporting the benefits of marijuana for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis is extremely limited: a meta-analysis of the literature

Background

Medical marijuana is increasingly used to control inflammation and pain in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the effect of marijuana on the clinical response, induction of clinical remission, and maintenance of clinical remission compared to placebo/standard of care.

Methods

We performed a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science in June 2019, for cannabis/marijuana and IBD, Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis (UC). The statistical analysis was performed using Revman (version 5.3). GRADE methodology was used to assess the quality of the evidence.

Results

Of the 334 studies initially reviewed, 1 trial in UC and 2 trials in Crohn’s disease met eligibility. For UC, 29 patients were treated with marijuana and 31 with placebo/standard of care. There was no difference in failure to achieve clinical remission (relative risk [RR] 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.76-1.37) or response (RR 0.99, 95%CI 0.65-1.21). Adverse events occurred in all patients receiving marijuana (RR 1.28, 95%CI 1.05-1.56). For Crohn’s disease, 21 patients were treated with marijuana and 19 with placebo/standard of care. There was no difference in failure to achieve clinical remission (RR 0.72, 95%CI 0.47-1.12) or failure to achieve clinical response (RR 0.15, 95%CI 0.02-1.05). Adverse events were not reported per patient. The quality of evidence was low to very low using GRADE methodology.

Conclusions

Data supporting the use of marijuana for the management of IBD are extremely limited. Further well-designed studies are needed before any positive conclusions regarding marijuana use can be drawn.

Endocannabinoid system in irritable bowel syndrome and cannabis as a therapy

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) global burden is underestimated despite its high prevalence. It's a gastrointestinal disease having obscure pathophysiology with multiple therapies yet unsatisfactory remedies. The Endocannabinoid system (ECS) of our body plays a key role in maintaining normal physiology of the gastrointestinal tract as well as involves abnormalities including functional diseases like IBS. This review highlights the importance of the Endocannabinoid system, its connections with the normal gastrointestinal functions and abnormalities like IBS. It also discusses the role of cannabis as medical therapy in IBS patients. A literature search for articles related to endocannabinoids in IBS and medical cannabis in PubMed and Google Scholar was conducted. The studies highlighted the significant participation of ECS in IBS. However, the breach in obtaining the promising therapeutic model for IBS needed further investigation in ECS and uncover other treatments for IBS. This review summarizes ECS, highlights the relationship of ECS with IBS and explores cannabis as a potential therapy to treat IBS.