A Doença de Parkinson e o uso do Canabidiol

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease worldwide, and it is considered one of the major causes of disability in the elderly. The pharmacotherapy of PD patients is limited. The drug of choice today is levodopa (a precursor to dopamine), however, a dose adjustment is necessary over time, and this medication starts to cause serious adverse reactions, such as tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements), acute gastrointestinal motor oscillations problems (nausea and vomiting) and visual hallucinations. In that respect, recent research suggests the cannabinoid system has an immediate relationship with the pathophysiology of PD, and those compounds which exert activity on this system, such as cannabidiol (CBD), could be effective in the treatment of some symptoms of PD. Thus, the objective of this work was to perform a literature review on the effectiveness of using cannabidiol in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Thus, a narrative review on the literature of scientific articles has been made available on the platforms PubMed, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), LILACS, VHL, books, among others. Preclinical studies have observed that CBD prevented neuronal death, induced synaptogenesis, and reduced motor and non-motor deficits induced by Parkinson's model. Accordingly, clinical studies have shown that the use of CBD reduced psychoses (associated with PD) and improved the quality of life of the patient with PD, without causing severe adverse effects. These results suggest that CBD is a potential drug for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.