Abstract
Symptomatic management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is complex and many symptoms, especially non-motor symptoms, are not effectively addressed with current medications. In the US, cannabis has become more widely available for medical and recreational use, permitting those in the PD community to try alternative means of symptom control. However, little is known about the attitudes towards, and experiences with, cannabis use among those living with PD. To address this shortcoming, we distributed an anonymous survey to 7,607 people with PD in January 2020 and received 1339 responses (17.6%). 1064 complete responses were available for analysis. Respondents represented 49 states with a mean age of 71.2 years (±8.3) and mean PD duration of 7.4 years (±6.2). About a quarter of respondents (24.5%) reported cannabis use within the previous six months. Age and gender were found to be predictors of cannabis use in this sample (Age OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97; Male OR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.03). Users reported learning about cannabis use from the internet/news (30.5%) and friends or other people with PD (26.0%). Cannabis users were more likely to report insufficient control of their non-motor symptoms with prescription medications than non-users (p = 0.03). Cannabis was primarily used for PD (63.6%) and was most often used to treat nonmotor symptoms of anxiety (45.5%), pain (44.0%), and sleep disorders (44.0%). However, nearly a quarter of users (23.0%) also reported they had stopped cannabis use in the previous six months, primarily due to a lack of symptom improvement (35.5%). Three quarters of respondents (75.5%) did not use cannabis, primarily because there was a lack of scientific evidence supporting efficacy (59.9%). Our results suggest that the lack of formal guidance or research evidence about cannabis for PD may in part underlie inconsistencies in both use and reported effectiveness.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting more than 1 million Americans at a cost to society of more than $50 Billion dollars[1,2]
We examined cannabis use, knowledge, motivations, and routines among people living with PD
This study is unique in that we captured both medicinal and recreational cannabis use among a large number of people living with PD from most fifty states
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting more than 1 million Americans at a cost to society of more than $50 Billion dollars[1,2]. Non-motor manifestations of PD are varied and include sleep disturbances such as insomnia, sleep fragmentation and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), cognitive changes, depression, anxiety, hallucinations, hyposmia, pain, and autonomic dysfunction (constipation, orthostatic hypotension, and urinary incontinence)[4,5]. The efficacious control of LID and of non-motor features represents a major therapeutic challenge that is often unmet for those living with PD5. Many of those living with PD in the US are interested in complementary and alternative or integrative therapies (CAIM) that may bring relief to their troubling nonmotor symptoms[6,7]
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