Medical Cannabis in Parkinson Disease: Real-Life Patients' Experience
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The use of medical cannabis (MC) is controversial. Support for its benefits is based on small clinical series.
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to report the results of a standardized interview study that retrospectively assessed the effects of MC on symptoms of Parkinson disease (PD) and its adverse effects in patients treated for at least 3 months.
METHODS:
The survey used telephone interviews using a structured questionnaire based on subjective global impressions of change for various parkinsonian symptoms and yes/no questions on adverse effects.
RESULTS:
Forty-seven nondemented patients with PD (40 men) participated. Their mean age was 64.2 ± 10.8 years, mean disease duration was 10.8 ± 8.3 years, median Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) was stage III. The duration of MC use was 19.1 ± 17.0 months, and the mean daily dose was 0.9 ± 0.5 g. The delivery of MC was mainly by smoking cigarettes (38 cases, 80.9%). Effect size (r) improvement for falls was 0.89, 0.73 for pain relief, 0.64 for depression, 0.64 for tremor, 0.62 for muscle stiffness, and 0.60 for sleep. The most frequently reported adverse effects from MC were cough (34.9%) in those who used MC by smoking and confusion and hallucinations (reported by 17% each) causing 5 patients (10.6%) to stop treatment.
CONCLUSIONS:
Medical cannabis was found to improve symptoms of PD in the initial stages of treatment and did not cause major adverse effects in this pilot, 2-center, retrospective survey. The extent of use and the reported effects lend support to further development of safer and more effective drugs derived from Cannabis sativa.
PMID: 29059132 DOI: 10.1097/WNF.0000000000000246
Balash Y1, Bar-Lev Schleider L, Korczyn AD, Shabtai H, Knaani J, Rosenberg A, Baruch Y, Djaldetti R, Giladi N, Gurevich T.
my husband was disgnosed with parkinsons disease at 67,his symptoms were shuffling of feet,slurred speech,low volume speech,degradation of hand writing,horrible driving skills,right arm held at 45 degress angle,things were tough for me,i too was diagnosed of COPD but now we both finally free from those diseases with help of total cure from ultimatehealthhome,he now walks properly and all the symptoms has reversed,he had trouble with balance especially at night,getting into the shower exiting it is difficult,getting into bed is is also another thing finds impossiable.