New research — which Kentucky participated in as a trial site — shows a combination of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can help late-stage dementia patients feel less agitation.
Greg Jicha, M.D., Ph.D., director of clinical trials at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, said this combination, given to patients all over the state who participated in trials, lowered agitation scores by eight points, a “striking” reduction.
“We’ve seen a lot of Alzheimer’s research really move towards the early stages in terms of prevention, and that’s really left a huge hole in the field where we have limited options to provide quality of life, dignity and respect for those that are in the later stages of disease,” Jicha said during a Tuesday morning virtual press conference. “We have very few medications that we can use for patients that may be agitated and/or have other neuropsychiatric symptoms, and these can be quite disruptive, especially for our families in our area who choose to care for their loved one at home.”
Kentucky has a medical cannabis program, approved by the legislature in 2023, which allows patients experiencing a range of chronic distress to get medical marijuana prescriptions.
“Notably, however, dementia is not listed,” Jicha said.
Dementia is a “major leading cause of death,” he said, and “the data that we have out there do suggest that the majority of folks that are in hospice are suffering from some sort of dementia, whether they’re in hospice for the dementia itself, or for a related condition, or just other conditions that may be unrelated, such as cancer.”
“I think that it was an oversight to not include dementia specifically in our state statute,” Jicha said.
Read the full article on Kentucky Lantern.