Home > Medical cannabis for treating various symptoms in Switzerland.

Oordt, Anouk and Eeuwijk, Jennifer and Bunge, Eveline and Wester, Valérie and Klein, Philip and Kanters, Tim and Uyl-de Groot, Carin (2021) Medical cannabis for treating various symptoms in Switzerland. Berne: Federal Office of Public Health.

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Medical cannabis encompasses all cannabis-based products which are used for med-ical treatment. The so far most studied cannabinoids, and thought to be the most important in terms of clinical effects, are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). General reimbursement by the compulsory health insurance for medical cannabis does not exist in Switzerland. Medical cannabis can be used to treat various symptoms and is predominantly used as add-on therapy or after other therapeutic options are unsuccessful. Preceding this Health Technology Assessment (HTA) report, a scoping review was conducted of which the results were published in the scoping report. The scoping report describes the evidence base for the use of medical cannabis for treating the following symptoms: chronic pain, spasticity, unintentional weight loss, and nausea and vomiting related to cancer treatment. For the latter two symptoms, the evidence from the randomised con-trolled trials (RCTs) was insufficient to make pertinent recommendations and it was therefore de-cided not to continue with complete data extraction and cost-effectiveness modelling for these two symptoms in the HTA phase. The overall aim of this HTA report was to investigate the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness, and budget impact of medical cannabis use in chronic pain and spasticity in Switzerland.

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