Effect of Using Medical Cannabis on Distressing Symptoms and Quality of Life in Palliative Cancer Patients
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Abstract
Introduction: Several end-stage cancer patients always often experience uncomfortable symptoms such as pain, breathlessness, anorexia, insomnia, fatigue. Modern modality cannot fully relieve those symptoms. Medical cannabis is mainly utilized as alternative medicine in palliative cancer patients, however the benefit of medical cannabis in those patients is inconclusive. The present study aimed to determine the effect of medical cannabis on distressing symptoms and quality of life in palliative cancer patients.
Methods: The quasi-experimental study with one-group pretest-posttest design was implemented prospectively in 50 palliative cancer patients who prescribed medical cannabis during 1st October 2021 – 1st October 2022. Two weeks after medical cannabis was introduced distressing symptoms had assessed by using Edmonton symptom assessment scale, Cronbach's alpha= 0.75 and Quality of life measure by Thai version of The EQ-5D-5L health questionnaire (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.89) were compared by pair T-test statistic. The significance level was indicated as 0.05.
Results: Of 50 palliative cancer patients, the majority of them were female (56%). The average age was 67.4 years. Colorectal was mainly reported, 38%. Comparing the differences before and after medical cannabis treatment, which distressing symptoms that reach statistically significant were nausea-vomiting score (p-value <0.001), anorexia score (p-value = 0.007), and fatigue score (p-value = 0.001) but the quality of life was no statistically significant (p-value=0.227)
Conclusions: Medical cannabis contributes benefits to palliative cancer patients. It relieves the nausea-vomiting, anorexia, and fatigue symptoms among them. Medical cannabis should be promoted among palliative cancer patients more than ever.
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