I have been a board certified internist for 35 years. For most of those years I practiced a pretty traditional/UCLA trained type of Internal Medicine. Ultimately, I switched to this new world because I felt my tool bag of therapeutic modalities was falling short.
Issues related to pain and mood disorders makes up so much of an Internist’s practice, that he is forced to frequently use medications that are almost given now with apologies. We have to give addicting warnings. We have to register each prescription. We need to search a database to make certain the patient is not getting any medications from other doctors.
In other words, we are giving out prescriptions for medicines that are so dangerous that we need to register them. We even need to openly look for abuse issues.
So, the cannabis field seemed a good place where to focus. As CBD came on the scene, dosed medicine seemed the only way to go. As an Internist, integrating the rest of the patient’s medical are is essential. Also, there is so much bad medicine out there, we can serve as a check on the “traditional” care.
BTW, as an aside, did you ever wonder WHY CBD became such a big deal over the past five years? It is because before labs were running well, we could never show or know that we had a plant that was rich in CBD.
Anyway, I digress. The real point of this blog is to share an interesting patient I saw last week. It was a great example of how we can fully integrate the patient’s ongoing medical career with the world of dosed cannabis medicine.
In this case, an elderly lady living in a retirement home, came in requesting the use of Cannabis for nausea of about one year’s duration. Upon review of her list of medications, she was on three medications that were not very important in her care AND had nausea, her primary complaint, as a common side effect.
We briefly talked about extracts that she MIGHT use, but she never ended up using it or needing it.
What might have happened had she begun taking a CBD rich extract? Perhaps her nausea would have improved. This would have been awful, as it would have delayed what she really needed – a simplification of her medical regimen.
I urge primary care docs to consider adding “Dosed Cannabis Medicine” to your toolbox. You will be happy you did. If you have any questions on how to get started, give me a call.
