14 DAY TRIAL // The English patients suffering from multiple sclerosis might benefit for the first time from a cannabis-based painkiller, BBC announced.
According to a study carried out by the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Sativex reduces pain and sleep disturbance.
Mike O'Donovan, Chief executive of the MS Society, said the prescription of the drug was: "a move in the right direction".
"We believe there is now good evidence that cannabis-derived medicine can relieve distressing symptoms like spasticity and pain in multiple sclerosis", he added.
Sativex comes as an oral spray which contains two chemical compounds found in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, the first being the main phisoactive agent.
Naturally occurring cannabis, Cannabis sativa, contains a group of chemical compounds not found in other plants known as cannabinoids. Over 60 different cannabinoids have so far been identified, but the role and importance of many of these has yet to be fully understood.
Sativex will be imported from Canada, where it was approved in April 2005, and the entire responsibility for the prescription of the painkiller will be taken by the doctor.
Multiple sclerosis affects the central nervous system and it has several symptoms which are caused by demyelization (or the damaging of the myelin, the layer which covers the nerves). The disease has a negative impact on vision, equilibrium, stamina and speech.