American Friends of Rabin Medical Center • News & Innovations

Pain and the Relation to Treatment with Cannabis

Prof. Ruth Djaldetti

From: The Spokesman Department | Rabin Medical Center - Beilinson and Hasharon
January 13, 2013

50-80% of people with Parkinson's disease suffer from a specific type of pain, which until today has not been diagnosed and treated as a general part of this disease.

A study recently conducted at Rabin Medical Center by Prof. Ruth Djaldetti, senior neurologist and head of the movement disorder clinic has found a genetic link which could explain this pain and the relation to treatment with cannabis.

The research examined eight genes known to be involved in pain, among 237 patients with Parkinson's disease. They found that those suffering from this type of pain have gene sequence changes associated with the activity of cannabis-like substances produced in the brain and another gene associated with pain transmission. According to Prof. Ruth Djaldetti, the results of the study support the approach that patients suffering from this type of pain might be able to find relief by treatment with cannabis and have a better quality of life. These initial results should now be more extensively studied in order to arrive at more conclusive evidence.

Prof. Ruth Djaldetti expects that in the future it will be possible to adjust medical treatment as according to the mapping of individual genes.

The study was published in the European Journal of Pain.

DONATE NOW to support our efforts!

Robots in the Operating Room at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center

Surgical robotics is an advanced technology and phenomenal in its achievements, that combines tiny instruments with a sophisticated camera attached to the surgeon’s wrist to provide 3D images in real time.

iPad Catheterization Application Used for the First Time at Rabin Medical Center

A new advanced technology has been developed for the first time worldwide, at Rabin Medical Center's Invasive Cardiology Institute, where all pertinent information collected during the cardiac catheterization procedure is sent directly to an iPad.

The Earlier the Better: Probing Malignancies in Newborns

Building on their established international partnership, GE Healthcare and Rabin Medical Center are developing innovative products and working on creative medical solutions to facilitate the early diagnosis of medical problems in pregnant women and their fetuses.