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Save Key takeaways:
More than 20% of patients on hemodialysis reported cannabis use, but only 8% had ever been asked about it.
Cannabis does not interfere with dialysis but could interact with drugs used by this population.
Patients with kidney disease may be using cannabis recreationally or to treat symptoms without the knowledge of their health care team, according to results of a small survey of patients from a hemodialysis clinic in Canada.
Cannabis was legalized for medical and recreational use in Canada in 2018. In July and August 2020, Marisa Battistella, PharmD, a pharmacy clinician scientist specializing in chronic kidney disease at the University Health Network and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, and colleagues sought to characterize the attitudes and practices of patients on maintenance hemodialysis at their ambulatory clinic at Toronto General Hospital. Of the 52 survey respondents, 11 reported using cannabis in the preceding 3 months, and 23 reported ever using cannabis. “In our study, we did not have a lot of people who responded that they were using cannabis, but that was probably underreported because of stigma. Mind you, our study was a survey 5 years ago, and it was during COVID. I think, anecdotally, over the last few years, more and more people are using it. We get asked by patients on rounds more often about what forms they can use and where they can buy it.”
Healio talked with Battistella about implications of the survey findings for kidney care.
Healio: Did you find any of your study results surprising?
Battistella: We had three big take-home messages: First, we found a high proportion of patients with self-directed cannabis use. Second, there is a huge role for pharmacists and for the health care team to proactively identify people using cannabis. And third, smoking cannabis was one of the most common routes, as it probably is, even outside of our dialysis population.There is a lot of opportunity for our health care team to do harm reduction and patient education on, for example, more appropriate dosage forms if patients […]
Q&A: ‘A lot of opportunity’ exists to educate patients on hemodialysis about cannabis use
