Vaping Medical Pot may not relieve the symptoms of COPD

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Journalist

FRIDAY, July 27, 2018 (HealthDay News) – A feeling of shortness of breath is the hallmark of the respiratory illness known as COPD. Now, Canadian researchers say that vaping marijuana has not alleviated this symptom in most people in their study.

COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is a progressive respiratory disease, often related to smoking, with features of bronchitis and emphysema. The incurable disease remains the third biggest killer in the United States.

As marijuana becomes more available and accepted, people with COPD may believe that it can help, noted author of the study Sara Abdallah. "We first became aware of the therapeutic potential of cannabis to manage the symptoms of COPD in the patients themselves," says Abdallah in a press release from the American Thoracic Society. "We decided to continue this study because patients reported symptomatic relief of their COPD symptoms after cannabis use."

But would these anecdotal reports correspond to the results of a clinical trial?

To find out, Abdallah and his colleagues tracked results for 16 people with advanced COPD who were already taking medication for their lung disease.

Patients inhaled a single dose of sprayed cannabis or placebo before exercising on a stationary bike. The study was "double-blind", which means that neither patients nor researchers knew who inhaled cannabis or placebo.

For most patients, sprayed cannabis had no clinically significant effect – negative or positive – According to the Montreal team, only 4 of 16 participants noted an improvement in shortness of breath after the use of the vaped product, according to the researchers, while the other 12 showed no effect or had symptoms of shortness of breath. Despite the findings, this study was small and preliminary, so other "clinical trials are warranted and should evaluate the therapeutic potential of various doses of vaporized and oral cannabis, including oils and pills, administered on more long periods of time in patients with mild to moderate COPD, "said lead author Dennis Jensen in the press release.

He is an badociate professor of kinesiology and physical education and a researcher in the translational research program on respiratory diseases at McGill.

Two US COPD care experts agreed that the trial was greatly needed. In COPD, "the bronchi become narrow and, as can be imagined, it is more difficult to push or suck air through an obstructed tube than through a larger diameter tube. "Says Dr. Theodore Maniatis, doctor. Director of the Staten Island University Hospital in New York

"It's almost like thinking of a new pipe compared to an old rusty pipe with sludge build-up in the pipe," he says.

can help keep the airways open. According to Maniatis, opioids are opioids. "But as you can imagine, the use of opiates has other side effects and important concerns."

People are turning to cannabis-related drugs because these agents "have" In this recent study, however, it was found that – at least in patients optimally treated with other forms of therapy – – The addition of an inhaled cannabinoid "It did not diminish the feeling of shortness of breath," Maniatis said. Ann Tilley is a pulmonologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. She applauded the new study because it "aims to address a real need in clinical practice."

She said that patients often learn about alternative therapies, including medical marijuana, but there is little data on their effectiveness. "Although this study can not rule out the idea that a different dose or inhalation method may produce a benefit, it does not support the use of cannabis to relieve the condition." breathlessness of severe COPD, "said Tilley

. published on July 27 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society