Munich, Germany: Researchers at the University Hospital of Munich have begun the first ever clinical patient trial examining the efficacy of cannabis extracts as a treatment for Crohn's disease, according to a press release issued by the hospital. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammation of the intestine, characterized by severe abdominal pain, nausea, and weight loss.

Clinical research published last year by the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich found that cannabinoids prevent an experimental inflammation of the colon in animals. Researchers in Italy had previously speculated that modulating "the endogenous cannabinoid system could provide new therapeutics for the treatment of a number of gastrointestinal diseases," including gastric ulcers and Crohn's disease.

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