Cannabis: A New Addition to the Palliative Care Toolkit (P11)

Increasing numbers of patients living with serious illness are requesting access to medical cannabis as well as guidance about its use for pain and symptom management, as a disease-modifying drug for cancer and other diseases, and as a strategy to avoid chronic opioid and benzodiazepine use. Select palliative care clinics have incorporated cannabis into their therapeutic toolkit, and “cannabis consultations” have become an entry point for accessing palliative care for some patients. In many states, physicians and advance practice providers are responsible for counseling and registering patients for medical cannabis, though medical decision-making about the benefits and harms of cannabis is challenging given the relative paucity of guidelines and evidence.
Source: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management - Category: Palliative Care Authors: Source Type: research