‘Uncharted territory’: Doctors struggle with patient demand for unproven CBD supplements

cbd oil cannabis leaf x
Image: Healthline

[Jacqueline] French, a neurologist at New York University’s Langone Health, tries to steer her patients away from sprinting to the neighborhood bodega to buy versions of the hemp derivative that’s better known as CBD.

She, like so many other doctors around the country, is torn — on the one hand, there’s scant guidance for how to treat a patient with a CBD supplement, and there are few reputable sellers who can guarantee what they’re selling. There’s not nearly as much science behind those products as with a typical prescription medicine. On the other hand, there is one FDA-approved drug based on CBD, fully cleared based on the agency’s rules for safety and efficacy, with dosing information at least for the patients who have the two types of epilepsy it treats.

French, like so many other doctors around the country whose patients are clamoring to try the supplement, is in uncharted territory.

French said she tries to get her patients with epilepsy access to Epidiolex. When she can’t, she will encourage patients to take a low dose of the corner-store variety, with hopes that they’ll find some relief — or at least not hurt themselves.

Read full, original post: CBD is all the rage among patients. It’s launching their physicians into uncharted territory

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