Cannabis and Parkinson's Disease

welcome back to the demystifying medicine youtube channel today we will be discussing cannabis and parkinson's disease parkinson's disease also known as pd is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder studies have tried to find a cause for pd either genetic or environmental but none have been confirmed the disease is characterized by a loss of dopamine producing neurons in the substantia negra which is an area of the brain responsible for movement this means that the cells in the brain that create dopamine are no longer doing so the death of these neurons causes loss of motor control because dopamine is important for relaying messages to plan muscle movements this leads to the motor symptoms of pd including tremors muscle rigidity and bradykinesia which means slowness of movement there are some non-motor symptoms of the disease as well including anxiety depression and trouble sleeping the risk of developing pd increases with age especially above the age of 60. the prevalence of pd in the us was 680 000 in 2010 and was projected to be 930 000 in 2020 with the prevalence of this disease continually increasing there's a need for new treatment options and cannabis could be a potential treatment for pd cannabis is a drug illicit in some parts of the world that has both psychoactive and therapeutic effects it is an umbrella term that is given to various preparations of the plant cannabis sativa and has other common names such as marijuana weed and pot cannabis contains many compounds known as cannabinoids cannabinoids are chemical substances that bind to cannabinoid receptors in the body this can be visualized as a key which is the cannabinoid fitting into a lock which is the receptor the most common cannabinoids present in cannabis are thc and cbd cannabinoids due to differences in their chemical properties can have varying effects in the body thc is accountable for the psychoactive effects of cannabis and produces the high sensation cbd works to control or reduce some of the psychoactive effects of thc such as anxiety specifically thc and cbd work in the endocannabinoid system in our body which affects different parts of the central nervous system along with cellular communication which is why changes in the system can be linked to parkinson's disease currently the most common medication prescribed for pd is levodopa also known as l-dopa when aldopa reaches the brain it is converted into dopamine and therefore compensates for the decrease in dopamine due to pd however research has shown that some patients fail to respond to treatment with l-dopa furthermore the drug has been associated with adverse side effects and motor complications over time including involuntary movements called dyskinesias in the last decade there has been an increased focus on investigating the therapeutic potential of cbd in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as pd most human clinical trials have been concentrated on the non-motor symptoms of the disease including anxiety depression and trouble sleeping with results indicating that cbd is successful in treating many of these symptoms although less research has focused on the effects of cbd on motor symptoms a 2004 study using a survey aimed to evaluate the experiences of parkinson's patients using cannabis to help treat their disease the results of this study showed that bradykinesia was the symptom most improved by cannabis followed by muscle rigidity and tremors research has focused on various pathways in which cbd could treat the motor symptoms of pd a 2014 study using a mouse model made it an important discovery regarding the gpr6 receptor gpr6 is a receptor that is predominantly expressed in the brain and is molecularly similar to the cannabinoid receptors this study showed that a deficiency of the gpr-6 receptor in a mouse model of parkinson's disease led to an increase in dopamine concentration in the brain furthermore it led to reduced dyskinesia caused by treatment with l-dopa although this has yet to be tested in humans mice are accurate and commonly used animal models for human disease using the results found in the study in 2017 a research team tested the effects of cannabinoids on the gpr6 receptor their results showed that cbd acts as an inverse agonist to the gpr6 receptor this means that cbd binds to gpr6 decreasing the activity of the receptor and therefore leading to an increase in dopamine this research has identified cbd as a potential therapy for treating the motor symptoms of pd without the negative side effects caused by aldoba although these findings are very promising more research needs to be done on the topic with more clinical trials to show the effects of cbd in humans with pd now that we've discussed the effects of cannabis in the body let's review physicians perspectives on treatment of pd with medical marijuana animal investigations support suggestions of improvement in bradykinesia and tremors but this is unsubstantiated in human studies some patients have reported that marijuana diminishes some motor non-motor cognitive and or mood symptoms of pd 18 studies investigated medical practitioners perspectives on this none of these studies presented results that outright rejected the clinical usefulness of medical cannabis in a separate study physicians were asked to indicate the degree to which the use of cannabis is evidence-based for various symptoms of pd 87 of physicians felt that the literature supported the use of cannabis for nausea 60 for anxiety and 86 for pain responses were divided with regard to motor symptoms in fact only 36 percent of physicians believed cannabis could help parkinson's patients with tremors and 35 for symptoms like dyskinesia researchers need to clarify the safety and efficacy of pharmacotherapy with cannabis products or medical marijuana will remain largely without scientific endorsement research has to document the full benefits risks and clinical applications of marijuana as a treatment for patients with pd medical practitioners attribute a self-perceived lack of knowledge as a significant barrier to approval a study conducted by edelstein at al revealed that 95 of participants had no formal education about medical marijuana 84.6 reported being unprepared to answer clients questions that were cannabis related medical practitioners also raised issues about the potential for recreational misuse diversion into illicit channels the risk of drug drug interactions driving under the influence of cannabis and the potential risks associated with uncontrolled supply finally rey's concern for the health of individual patients was mostly focused around psychiatric adverse effects more than 10 million people worldwide are living with pd and the incidence of parkinson's only increases with age when such a large portion of the population has an incurable disease it is essential that we explore every possible therapy to help improve their quality of life medical cannabis is a promising therapy for pd and requires further research to investigate its potential as a new and exciting treatment for the disease thank you so much for watching also remember to subscribe to the demystifying medicine channel for more videos

Channel: Demystifying Medicine McMaster

Views: 145,795

Keywords: McMaster University, Demystifying Medicine, Cannabis, Parkinson

Id: e6dD81GhgiI

Length: 7min 53sec (473 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021