Project Twenty21 - July Update

Our Project Twenty21 monthly updates have changed. From now on, we will be incorporating the medical cannabis news (previously included in our T21 mailout) into the Drug Science newsletter which goes out around the first Tuesday of every month. This means that from next month you will receive a second email from us, telling you all about what we're up to in the cannabis space as well as what else we have going on at Drug Science.

The T21 monthly update has been simplified to focus primarily on our latest study data. If you would prefer only to receive the data update, simply hit 'unsubscribe' on the Drug Science newsletter when it lands in your inbox next month.

Would you like to be on MS-UK's new podcast?

Multiple Sclerosis charity MS-UK are launching a new podcast and would like to hear from one of our Project Twenty21 patients using medical cannabis for treating their MS symptoms. If that might be you, get in touch here.

Patient quote of the month

This month's T21 data

Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a group of rare inherited conditions (affecting 1 in 3,500-5,000) that affect connective tissue, primarily the skin, joints and blood vessel walls. People who have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome usually have overly flexible joints which can cause joint pain and frequent dislocations and stretchy, fragile skin that does not heal well, leaving gaping scars. Symptom severity can vary from person to person and depends on the specific type of EDS that a person has. There are 13 types of EDS, with the most common being Hypermobile EDS (hEDS). At the moment, there is no known cure for EDS - but there are treatments for the symptoms which include pain.
 

EDS is more prevalent in women than in men, despite the fact that 2/3 of T21 patients are male. This is consistent with the findings from a Welsh study of everyone diagnosed with EDS where 70% of the sample was female. EDS patients are slightly younger on average than T21 patients overall. They report a significantly higher number of secondary conditions,* but when it comes to health outcomes, EDS patients reported similar levels of average general health as well as pain interference and severity to that of other chronic pain patients.

It is our hope that, as we gather more data, we will see a significant improvement in these patients’ outcomes, including their pain and overall quality of life, and a decrease in the number of medications they need to use in addition to their medical cannabis prescription.

* t(34)=-4.5, p< .05

A collaboration between Drug Science and Medcan Support, this daytime conference is open to the general public and is the first of its kind in the UK! The event will be a chance for the medical cannabis patient and prescriber community to come together and be heard.

Our venue is now confirmed as Oval Space, by Cambridge Heath overground in East London. More details on our schedule will be released nearer the time.

As we analyse the data and receive more and more stories from patients, the importance of Project Twenty21 has never been clearer.

If you’d like to support Project Twenty21, to help us gather evidence for medical cannabis to be covered by the NHS, please consider a donation to Drug Science. Every little bit helps us continue the essential work that we do.

Missed our last update? Read what we were up to last month here.