Today, 16:20 • 3 minutes reading time
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The UMCG has started a new study into the effect of medicinal cannabis oil in patients with Epidermolysis Bullosa. This is a serious hereditary blister disease that is accompanied by severe pain, chronic wounds and scars. There is no cure for it and current pain management is not sufficient, according to the UCMG.
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The researchers want to determine within a year whether the cannabis oil has an influence on the pain experienced by patients.
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socially isolated
Lead researcher and dermatologist Marieke Bolling: ‘The pain starts at birth and lasts a lifetime, because the blisters and wounds continue to occur. There is no cure.’
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According to the UMCG, the research focuses exclusively on the experience of pain and not on blistering. It is not only about wound and care pain, but also about pain that can occur in various places in the body without always being able to be explained anatomically.
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‘Pain often has a negative influence on the mental state, behavior and interaction of people with those around them,’ explains anesthesiologist-pain specialist André Wolff. ‘People are often anxious, depressed or incapacitated for work and thus become socially isolated.’
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3D image of the brain
‘It remains difficult for science to determine a person’s experience of pain’, the UMCG reports. ‘A scale of zero to ten is often used for this, but the outcome is still a subjective score. A new way of objectively meaning pain is the use of a functional MRI.’
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This creates a 3D image of the brain, showing the parts of the brain that are responsible for processing pain. This instrument, together with the cannabis substances and pain score of the patient, should provide more insight.
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Five hundred patients in the Netherlands
There are approximately five hundred patients with EB in the Netherlands, ninety percent of whom are being treated in the UMCG, at the Center for Blister Diseases. Sixteen of them are selected by the UMCG to participate in the study.
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‘In tea or a pastry’
The research is not entirely new: it has its origins as far back as 2014. Initiator Nic Schräder became involved in the topic as a medical student: ‘I went to patients’ homes for a small-scale wound examination to test a new type of dressing,’ he says. . ‘During these visits, it became apparent that these people were using cannabis to treat pain. It was taken as tea or in a pastry, inhaled in a joint or a vaporizer, but also on and around the wound itself.’
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This research is the follow-up to that; a new study at the UMCG into the effects of medicinal cannabis oil.
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