A close-up shows the budding flower and serrated leaves of a cannabis plant. A study by researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, published Aug. 5, 2026, in Nature Medicine, found that dronabinol, a prescription medication containing THC, eliminated trauma-related nightmares entirely for more than a third of PTSD patients in a 10-week trial. (Richard Vogel/AP)
A new German drug study that tested the psychoactive compound in cannabis for treating a major symptom of post-traumatic stress could offer hope to U.S. veterans after it eliminated nightmares in more than a third of patients who received the drug.
The 10-week study of the drug dronabinol, which contains tetrahydrocannabinol or THC directly from the cannabis plant, is believed to be the first of its kind to study the drug’s impact on PTSD-related nightmares, physician and lead author Stefan Roepke told Stars and Stripes on Monday.
Researchers saw nightmares completely disappear in 37% of patients who received dronabinol, compared with 15% of those who received a placebo. About 58% of those who received the drug saw improvements.
The research did not focus on combat exposure, but the findings could be relevant to U.S. veterans currently participating in a pair of clinical trials at Wayne State University in Michigan, where researchers are studying the use of cannabis alone and paired with therapy for treating PTSD and suicidality in veterans.
“The message is not just: take marijuana. No, that’s not what we found,” Roepke said. “I would not suggest just to smoke marijuana for your nightmares. I would suggest going to a doctor and discuss it and really titrate a medication for that.”
Titration is the process of gradually adjusting a drug dose until achieving the desired balance of benefits and side effects.
The peer-reviewed study was conducted by Charite University in Berlin in conjunction with the pharmaceutical company Bionorica SE and published Aug. 5 in Nature Medicine.
The medical community, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, has struggled for decades to treat PTSD nightmares, which may afflict over 70% of those with the disorder, according to a 2018 VA article in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep.
Post-traumatic stress disorder remains one of the biggest medical issues to come out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one of the most difficult maladies to treat. Nightmares, or reliving the event, are among the key symptoms of the disorder, the VA website states. Of the 6,398 suicide deaths among veterans in 2023, sleep problems were a contributing factor in over half the cases, according to a VA suicide prevention report released in March.
Roepke began the study in 2017, though researchers did not see their first patient for three years, he said. Over the course of 10 weeks, they studied the impact of THC from the plant on 87 of 171 participants in four locations in Berlin, Hamburg and Mannheim.
They began administering 2.5 milligrams of dronabinol to that group and gradually increased the dose until achieving the desired result, Roepke said. The highest dose was 15 milligrams.
The study is promising, but more work is needed to determine its potential implications for U.S. veterans, Roepke said. Though combat exposure was not a focus of the study, 19% of participants reported PTSD related to war or captivity, Roepke said.
About 80% of participants were women, with most reporting trauma related to physical and sexual assault.
The researchers will continue studying the data, Roepke said. The drug is already available in Germany.
Stars and Stripes reporter Shannon Renfroe contributed to this report.
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