Medical cannabis trialled in a Marseille hospital
La Timone Hospital in Marseille is about to experiment with medical cannabis on a panel of around thirty patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. This is a first in France.
The beginnings of cannabis in clinical trials.
La Timone Hospital in Marseille could well become a pioneer in the field of medical cannabis. The decision to experiment with cannabinoid-based treatment on patients with Parkinson's disease is a first in this area. Cannabis has a rather unflattering reputation in France, where it is systematically associated with a drug consumed recreationally by a large number of people, in complete illegality. However, it contains a wide variety of molecules whose effectiveness has been demonstrated in certain contexts.
In December 2018, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) gave its approval for the use of cannabis in a therapeutic setting. Hence La Timone's desire today to get started: "We are finally moving in the right direction. Doctors and the public are beginning to understand that if it is well-regulated and monitored, there is no reason to deprive patients of a product that would improve their lives," assures Olivier Blin, head of the clinical pharmacology department at La Timone. An experiment that should last a year and be conducted on patients but also healthy, non-smoking subjects.
The ANSM's recommendations have been followed by the Marseille institution, which has great ambitions and high hopes for these tests. A positive outcome would undoubtedly be a major advance.
Measuring the effectiveness of cannabis on identified symptoms.
Medical cannabis would be reserved for certain patients under particular conditions, for now. Only "patients in certain clinical situations and in cases of insufficient relief or poor tolerance of available therapeutic (medicinal or non-medicinal) treatments (and notably cannabis- or cannabinoid-based specialties) {...} This use may be considered as a supplement to or replacement for certain therapies," according to the ANSM statement.
The objective is clear: to measure the effectiveness of cannabis on the motor effects of Parkinson's, the second neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's. This causes a progressive loss of control of movements and the appearance of other motor symptoms such as limb rigidity and resting tremors. Scientists will take advantage of the situation to analyze the effects of medical cannabis on non-motor disorders: an opportunity to look into issues of anxiety and depression.
The first step will be to study cannabis itself: "Initially, we will study the active principles of the product (THC and CBD) to find its optimal combination, using synthetic cannabis," concludes Olivier Blin.
