Cannabinoids in Treating Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a serious neurodegenerative condition impacting many individuals worldwide. There is a need for new non-invasive treatments of PD. Cannabinoids in the form of cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) may offer utility as treatment, and our objective was hence to conduct a systematic review regarding the clinical evidence for the efficacy and safety of cannabinoids in treating PD.

Methods: Screening, data extraction, and quality assessments were all conducted by multiple reviewers, with discrepancies resolved by consensus.

Results: After conducting searches in 4 different databases, 673 articles were screened. Thirteen articles were deemed eligible for inclusion in this review. It was shown that cannabis, CBD, and nabilone (a synthetic form of THC) were capable of consistently improving motor symptoms more than a placebo. All treatments improved various non-motor symptoms, particularly with cannabis improving pain intensity, and CBD improving psychiatric symptoms in a dose-dependent manner. Adverse effects were usually minor, and, in the case of CBD, rare (except at very high doses).

Conclusion: Cannabinoids have been shown to safely offer important potential in treating motor symptoms in PD and some non-motor symptoms. More large-scale randomized control trials for specific forms of cannabinoid treatments are required to determine their overall efficacy.