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Olsson F, Erridge S, Tait J, Holvey C, Coomber R, Beri S, Hoare J, Khan S, Weatherall MW, Platt M, Rucker JJ, Sodergren MH. An observational study of safety and clinical outcome measures across patient groups in the United Kingdom Medical Cannabis Registry. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol 2023; 16:257-266. [PMID: 36848456 DOI: 10.1080/17512433.2023.2183841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is a paucity of high-quality data on patient outcomes and safety after initiating treatment with cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs). The aim of this study was to assess the clinical outcomes and safety of CBMPs by analyzing patient-reported outcome measures and adverse events across a broad spectrum of chronic conditions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This study analyzed patients enrolled in the UK Medical Cannabis Registry. Participants completed the EQ-5D-5L to assess health-related quality of life, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire to measure anxiety severity, and the Single-item Sleep Quality Scale (SQS) to rate sleep quality at baseline and follow-up after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS A total of 2833 participants met inclusion criteria. The EQ-5D-5L index value, GAD-7, and SQS all improved at each follow-up (p < 0.001). There was no difference in EQ-5D-5L index values between former or current illicit cannabis consumers and naïve patients (p > 0.050). Adverse events were reported by 474 (16.73%) participants. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that CBMPs are associated with an improvement in health-related quality of life in UK patients with chronic diseases. Treatment was tolerated well by most participants, but adverse events were more common in female and cannabis-naïve patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabian Olsson
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Simon Erridge
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - James Tait
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - Carl Holvey
- Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - Ross Coomber
- Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK.,Department of Trauma & Orthopaedics, St. George's Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
| | - Sushil Beri
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - Jonathan Hoare
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - Shaheen Khan
- Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK.,Department of Palliative Medicine, Guy's & St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Mark W Weatherall
- Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK.,Department of Neurology, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Amersham, UK
| | - Michael Platt
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - James J Rucker
- Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK.,Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.,Centre for Affective Disorders, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Mikael H Sodergren
- Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Department of Medicine, Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
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Erridge S, Olsson F, Sodergren MH. Patient priorities for research: A focus group study of UK medical cannabis patients. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2023; 50:101693. [PMID: 36399996 DOI: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101693] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 11/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION There has yet to be an evaluation of medical cannabis patient preferences with respect to future research. As such, prioritisation of research agendas has been largely driven by academia and industry. The primary aim of this study was to elicit priorities for research from medical cannabis patients in the United Kingdom (UK). METHODS Patients undergoing active treatment for health conditions with medical cannabis in the UK were invited to take part in focus groups from December 2021 to February 2022. An inductive thematic analysis of responses was performed. Participants also completed a ranking exercise whereby they assigned ten counters (each equivalent to £1 million GBP) to competing research priorities. RESULTS 30 medical cannabis patients participated across 3 focus groups. The following themes were identified as research priorities: adverse events, comparison between cannabis-based medicinal products, health conditions, pharmacology of cannabis, types of study, healthcare professionals' attitudes, social environment, agriculture and manufacturing, and the cannabis plant. Participants assigned the highest proportion of research funding to 'assessment of effect on specific symptoms' (26 counters; 8.7%). CONCLUSIONS This study highlighted specific themes within which to focus future research on medical cannabis. Clinically, there was a directive towards ensuring that research is condition- or symptom-specific. Participants also emphasised themes on the social impact of medical cannabis, such as knowledge of medical cannabis among healthcare professionals, stigma, and effects on driving and in the workplace. These findings can guide both research funders and researchers into effectively conducting research which fits within a more patient-centric model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Erridge
- Imperial College Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK; Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK
| | - Fabian Olsson
- Imperial College Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Mikael H Sodergren
- Imperial College Medical Cannabis Research Group, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK; Sapphire Medical Clinics, London, UK.
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Laikre L, Olsson F, Jansson E, Hössjer O, Ryman N. Metapopulation effective size and conservation genetic goals for the Fennoscandian wolf (Canis lupus) population. Heredity (Edinb) 2016; 117:279-89. [PMID: 27328654 PMCID: PMC5026756 DOI: 10.1038/hdy.2016.44] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2015] [Revised: 04/26/2016] [Accepted: 05/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The Scandinavian wolf population descends from only five individuals, is isolated, highly inbred and exhibits inbreeding depression. To meet international conservation goals, suggestions include managing subdivided wolf populations over Fennoscandia as a metapopulation; a genetically effective population size of Ne⩾500, in line with the widely accepted long-term genetic viability target, might be attainable with gene flow among subpopulations of Scandinavia, Finland and Russian parts of Fennoscandia. Analytical means for modeling Ne of subdivided populations under such non-idealized situations have been missing, but we recently developed new mathematical methods for exploring inbreeding dynamics and effective population size of complex metapopulations. We apply this theory to the Fennoscandian wolves using empirical estimates of demographic parameters. We suggest that the long-term conservation genetic target for metapopulations should imply that inbreeding rates in the total system and in the separate subpopulations should not exceed Δf=0.001. This implies a meta-Ne of NeMeta⩾500 and a realized effective size of each subpopulation of NeRx⩾500. With current local effective population sizes and one migrant per generation, as recommended by management guidelines, the meta-Ne that can be reached is ~250. Unidirectional gene flow from Finland to Scandinavia reduces meta-Ne to ~130. Our results indicate that both local subpopulation effective sizes and migration among subpopulations must increase substantially from current levels to meet the conservation target. Alternatively, immigration from a large (Ne⩾500) population in northwestern Russia could support the Fennoscandian metapopulation, but immigration must be substantial (5–10 effective immigrants per generation) and migration among Fennoscandian subpopulations must nevertheless increase.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Laikre
- Department of Zoology, Division of Population Genetics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - F Olsson
- Department of Mathematics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - E Jansson
- Department of Zoology, Division of Population Genetics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - O Hössjer
- Department of Mathematics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - N Ryman
- Department of Zoology, Division of Population Genetics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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