Dr. Andrew Wilner, a neurohospitalist, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and attended last week’s annual conference in Philadelphia, PA, along with thousands of other neurologists. He reports back on a news conference held to discuss the latest studies on medical marijuana.
~~
Philadelphia – At a press conference during the annual American Academy of Neurology convention, Barbara Koppel, MD, Chief of Neurology at Metropolitan Hospital, East Harlem, NY, and Gary Gronseth, MD, Professor and Vice Chairman at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, summarized the findings of the new American Academy of Neurology systematic review on medical marijuana.
Marijuana and Epilepsy
After evaluating the literature, they only found enough evidence to conclude that certain forms of medical marijuana, pill and oral spray, can help treat some symptoms of multiple sclerosis: spasticity, pain related to spasticity, central pain, and overactive bladder. Marijuana was ineffective for tremor. There was not enough information to comment on the value of smoked marijuana for multiple sclerosis.
Marijuana and other medical issues
For cervical dystonia, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, and Tourette’s syndrome there were not enough studies to make a recommendation one way or another.
For Parkinson’s disease, there was evidence that marijuana was NOT helpful to treat levodopa-induced dyskinesias.
Dr. Koppel mentioned that there were only two papers that addressed marijuana for epilepsy, and the evidence was not conclusive. She recommended that people with epilepsy who want to try medical marijuana enroll in a clinical trial rather than attempt self-medication by smoking marijuana. She stated, “The best way to find answers is to be a participant in this kind of study.”
A clinical trial is currently underway to investigate the potential antiepileptic effects of cannabidiol (GWP42003-P) in children and young adults with Dravet syndrome.
Adverse effects of marijuana included nausea, fatigue, increased weakness, suicidal thoughts, dizziness, fainting, behavioral changes, intoxication and two seizures in people who did not have epilepsy. Serious psychopathological side effects occurred in <1% of the patients. Most studies were short and did not evaluate any long-term side effects of marijuana.
Dr. Koppel suggested that physicians could recommend medical marijuana for appropriate multiple sclerosis symptoms.
Have you worked with patients using medical marijuana to treat symptoms? What were the outcomes? Would you consider using medical marijuana if there were more research to support its benefits? Does a lack of long term studies concern you? If you’re an M.D. or D.O. we’ll be discussing this and more inside Sermo, come join us.
References
Koppel BS, Brust JCM, Fife T, et al. Systematic review: Efficacy and safety of medical marijuana in selected neurologic disorders. Report of the Guideline Development Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology 2014;82:1556-1563.
Bio
Andrew Wilner, M.D., a neurohospitalist, is a regular contributor to our Multiple Sclerosis HUB. He also volunteers as the medical director of Lingkod Timog, a nonprofit medical mission organization that delivers health care to rural areas of the Philippines. For more information, see www.drwilner.org.
Dr. Wilner’s latest book is titled Bullets and Brains, a collection of essays on neurology and society, published in 2013. Available in paperback and Kindle e-book on Amazon.com.
[…] Source: Sermo.com […]