Medical cannabis trial for Tourette syndrome treats its first patient in Queensland

After trying about a dozen different medications, a Brisbane man who was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 12 hopes an Australian-first medicinal cannabis trial will help better his life.

A MEDICINAL cannabis trial for the debilitating neurological condition Tourette syndrome has begun in Brisbane with the first participant hopeful it will better his life.

Chris Wright, 31, of Scarborough, north of Brisbane, was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 12.

He has tried about a dozen medications, experiencing side effects so severe some of them have put him in hospital.

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For the past 16 years, he has been taking the drug clonazepam to manage the involuntary movements that his condition causes, but it comes at the cost of extreme fatigue.

“It’s pretty heavy stuff,” said the customer service officer, whose weight ballooned to 136kg on the drug before he began an intense exercise and diet regimen.

“Any reprieve would be very welcome. Tourette’s is exhausting and frustrating. I just hope this trial works out. There are a lot of people that have it worse than I do.”

Now 89kg, Mr Wright is grateful to be on the 24-patient trial, a joint project of Wesley Medical Research in Brisbane and the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative, set up to explore the benefits of medicinal cannabis.

Chris Wright, 31, was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 12.

“It isn’t a drug that has severe side effects like what I’m on now,” the avid cyclist said.

Wesley Medical Research neuropsychiatrist Philip Mosley will lead the trial designed to test the effectiveness and safety of medicinal cannabis as a treatment for Tourette syndrome.

Patients will complete six weeks on medicinal cannabis oil and another six weeks on a placebo.

The participants, and the researchers, will not know when they take the actual drug until the study is complete.

The Lambert Initiative has sourced the medicinal cannabis for the research, a mixture of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), two of the chemical compounds in the marijuana plant.

Dr Mosley said many people with Tourette syndrome experienced anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.

The condition is also associated with bullying and poor academic performance in childhood and adolescence, and with unemployment as an adult.

Bottles of medicinal cannabis to be used in the trial.

Mr Wright’s supportive parents Steve and Glenda first noticed signs of Tourette syndrome in their youngest child when he was seven.

But he was not diagnosed until five years later when the jerking became so severe he “almost knocked himself out”.

By aged 15, Chris was kept home from school for about six weeks when the physical movements and vocalisations distressed him.

“It was awful,” Mrs Wright said.

That was when a neurologist prescribed clonazepam, which he has taken since.

Mr Wright left school in Year 11 and, about six months later, secured voluntary work with Harvey Norman.

That turned into full-time work and he has been with the retailer since.

“He’s been blessed with a happy personality and they could see that,” Mrs Wright said.

People with Tourette syndrome are still needed for the trial.

To register: wesleyresearch.org.au/tourettes