Obstructive sleep apnea, which currently has no existing drugs for treatment, has been shown to be treatable with a synthetic cannabis-like therapy, dronabinol, reports MD Mag.

Conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern Medicine, the study examined 73 adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, revealing that the synthetic version of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was associated with a lower overall apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) compared with placebo.

Participants were randomized to either 2.5 mg dronabinol (n = 21), 10 mg dronabinol (n = 27), placebo (n = 25) once daily pills, an hour before sleep for 6 weeks. At baseline, AHI was measured (25.9 ±11.3) as well as Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores (11.45 ±3.8) and the mean latency of maintenance of wakefulness (MWT) test (19.2 ±11.8 minutes).