New Haven, CT: The combined administration of oral THC (dronabinol) and the endogenous compound PEA (palmitoylethanolamide) is associated with symptomatic improvements in patients with treatment-resistant Tourette’s syndrome (TS), according to observational trial data published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
A team of Yale University researchers assessed the use of THX-110 (a proprietary combination of THC and PEA) over a period of 12 weeks in a cohort of patients with refractory TS.
Authors reported that participants’ tic symptoms improved within one week of treatment and continued to improve over time. Treatment with THX-110 was well-tolerated by the majority of subjects.
They concluded: “THX-110 treatment led to an average improvement in tic symptoms of roughly 20 percent, or a 7-point decrease in the YGTSS [Yale Global Tic Severity Scale] total tic score. … Our open trial of THX-110 treatment supports an emerging body of evidence suggesting that cannabinoid compounds may be effective for the treatment of Tourette’s syndrome.”
Full text of the study, “A Phase-2 pilot study of a therapeutic combination of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and palmitoylethanolamide for adults with Tourette’s syndrome,” appears in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. Additional information on cannabinoids and TS is available from NORML.