Self-medication with cannabis by people who suffer from multiple sclerosis

SITUATION: Multiple sclerosis belongs to the most common chronic neurological disease of the central nervous system. The disease is incurable, however it is treatable. Modern medicine has a variety of medications to relieve the symptoms and slowing the onset and progression. In many cases, however, treatment is not effective and often causes side effects. Cannabis and its products are used in the symptomatic and causal therapy of many diseases. The efficacy of cannabis treatment in multiple sclerosis is confirmed by several studies. Medical cannabis is a way how to relieve pain and muscle spasms. In 2013 in the Czech Republic there have been changes in laws allowing prescribing cannabis for medical treatment. OBJECTIVES: The study's goal is to describe the issues of self-medication using medical cannabis from the perspective of people suffering from multiple sclerosis. The primary objective is to map the following areas: introduction to cannabis and motivation to self- medication, frequency and methods of self-medication, therapeutic effects experienced during self-medication, side effects experienced during self-medication, perspectives of cannabis use in the future. METHODOLOGY: Self-selection in combination with snowball sampling method was used to obtain survey respondents. Data in this study..