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P2‐243: Therapeutic cannabis in dementia care: Policy and practice
Author(s) -
DeKeuster Rebecca M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.06.783
Subject(s) - cannabis , dementia , medical cannabis , medicine , psychiatry , disease , family medicine , pathology
also collected. Results:During the study period, 275 patients were managed in this collaborative programme; 82 in 2013 and 202 in 2014. They comprised of 42 subjects with Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI), 84 with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), 141 with dementia and 8 with non-dementia related diagnosis. Among thosewith dementia, in 95, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was made while 46 had a non-AD diagnosis. Non-AD diagnosis included Frontotemporal dementia, Vascular dementia and Lewy Body Dementia. 55.3% of patients with dementia were in the mild stage, 31.9% moderate stage and 12.8% severe stage of dementia. SCI subjects had a mean MMSE and MOCA of 27.2 and 25.1. Corresponding scores for MCI and dementia were 24.5/21.1 and 17.9/15.7 respectively. GDS score was 4.9 for SCI, 4.6 for MCI, 4.5 for the dementia group. The prevalence of diabetes in the SCI, MCI and dementia groups were 26.2%, 35.7% and 42.7% respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 57.1%, 69.1%, 73.7% respectively. Hyperlipidemia was present in 81.0%, 77.4% and 69.5% of SCI, MCI and dementia patients. The Zarit burden score for patients with dementia was 19.1 reflecting moderate caregiver burden and the need for early education, counselling and access to dementia resources. Conclusions:Specialist-Primary care collaboration is a model of care that may allow timely diagnosis of dementia and early institution of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.