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What is Anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness that describes an eating disorder characterized by extremely low body weight and body imagepurging, excessive exercise or other weight control measures such as diet pills or diuretic drugs. While the condition primarily affects adolescent females approximately 10% of people with the diagnosis are male^[1]. Anorexia nervosa, involving neurobiological, psychological, and sociological components is a complex condition that can lead to death in severe cases. distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Individuals with anorexia are known to control body weight commonly through the means of voluntary starvation,

(Wikipedia)

Marijuana Facts and Resources:

• Dronabinol an effective appetite stimulant?
  “Dronabinol therapy was well tolerated. Overall, there was a trend toward weight gain in LTC residents treated with 12 weeks of dronabinol.”
• THC improves appetite and reverses weight loss in AIDS patients
  “When taken for 3 months to 1 year, dronabinol significantly improves appetite and reverses weight loss in patients living with HIV/AIDS.”
• Efficacy of dronabinol alone and in combination
  “Dronabinol or ondansetron was similarly effective for the treatment of CINV. Combination therapy with dronabinol and ondansetron was not more effective than either agent alone. Active treatments were well tolerated.”
• Dronabinol and marijuana in HIV-positive marijuana smokers: caloric intake, mood, and sleep.
  “THC and cannabis caused an increase in caloric intake and weight”
• The synthetic cannabinoid nabilone improves pain and symptom management in cancer patients
  “…nabilone, when added to standard of care and taken longer-term, appears to offer significant alleviation of several symptoms in cancer patients, including pain, nausea, depression and anxiety, insomnia, fever/night sweats, and overall distress.”
• Dronabinol for supportive therapy in patients with malignant melanoma and liver metastases
  “Loss of appetite and nausea due to liver metastases of malignant melanoma can be treated in individual cases supportively with Dronabinol.”
• Safety and efficacy of dronabinol in the treatment of agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
  “Dronabinol treatment for agitation in AD patients with anorexia was effective in 31 out of 48 of patients who were refractory to other medications. No adverse events were reported.”
• The perceived effects of smoked cannabis on patients with multiple sclerosis.
  “In more than 80% improvement of spasticity, pain, tremor, depression, anxiety, and paresthesia”
• Effects of dronabinol on anorexia and disturbed behavior in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
  “These results indicate that dronabinol is a promising novel therapeutic agent which may be useful not only for treatment of anorexia but also to improve disturbed behavior in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”
• Dronabinol as a treatment for anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS.
  “Dronabinol was found to be safe and effective for anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS.”
• Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol for appetite stimulation in cancer-associated anorexia
  “THC is an effective appetite stimulant in patients with advanced cancer. It is well tolerated at low doses.”
• Effect of dronabinol on nutritional status in HIV infection.
  “In a selected group of HIV-infected patients with weight loss, short-term treatment with dronabinol may result in improvement in nutritional status and symptom distress.”
• Dronabinol stimulates appetite and causes weight gain in HIV patients.
  “In this open pilot study, dronabinol 2.5 mg bid was well tolerated and caused a significant increase in appetite, improvement of symptoms and a strong trend toward weight gain.”
• Dronabinol effects on weight in patients with HIV infection.
  “Seven of the patients gained weight while on therapy and two others lost less than they had prior to therapy.”
• Recent clinical experience with dronabinol.
  “In open pilot studies, dronabinol caused weight gain in seven of ten patients with symptomatic HIV infection. In both HIV and cancer patients, dronabinol improved appetite at a dose which was well tolerated for chronic administration.”
• Dronabinol enhancement of appetite in cancer patients.
  “In this open, dose-ranging study, dronabinol appeared to stimulate both mood and appetite at well tolerated doses.”
• Effects of smoked marijuana on food intake and body weight
  “The principal increase within the category of snack foods was in the intake of sweet solid items, e.g., candy bars, compared to sweet fluid, e.g., soda, or savory solid items, e.g., potato chips. Increases in body weight during periods of active marijuana smoking were greater than predicted by caloric intake alone.”
• Behavioral analysis of marijuana effects on food intake in humans.
  “The administration of two or three active marijuana cigarettes during the social access period increased average daily caloric intake.”
• Cancer-related anorexia-cachexia syndrome
  “CE at the oral dose administered was well tolerated by these patients with CACS. No differences in patients’ appetite or QOL were found either between CE, THC, and PL or between CE and THC at the dosages investigated.”
  
• THC effective in appetite and weight loss in severe lung disease (COPD)
  “Patients with the severe lung disease COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) often suffer from appetite loss and cachexia (weight loss) resulting in reduced general well-being and early mortality. In an open clinical study THC improved appetite and well-being and resulted in weight gain.”
• Machinery Of The ‘Marijuana Munchies’
  “Marijuana–or more specifically its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol–has a well-documented tendency to stimulate hunger. And while scientists have traced this property to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, they have had little understanding of the neural circuitry underlying this effect.”
• Therapeutic Aspects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids
  “Cannabis and some cannabinoids are effective antiemetics and analgesics and reduce intraocular pressure.”
• Comparison of orally administered cannabis extract and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in treating patients with cancer-related anorexia-cachexia syndrome: a multicenter, phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial from the Cannabis-in-Cachexia-Study-Group.
  “CE at the oral dose administered was well tolerated by these patients with CACS. No differences in patients’ appetite or QOL were found either between CE, THC, and PL or between CE and THC at the dosages investigated.”