Dutch patients’ daily cannabis dose remains stable

The average daily dosage for prescribed medicinal cannabis among Dutch patients has remained remarkably stable over the past years. The average daily dose has risen slightly from 0.64 to 0.73 gram of cannabis per day during two study periods. This can be concluded from a recent study carried out by researcher Bas de Hoop. We asked him why is this important?

Where does the data for this study come from?

The Dutch Foundation for Pharmaceutical Statistics (SFK). SFK is an independent organisation who collects 90% of all prescription data from Dutch pharmacies. This includes the prescriptions for medicinal cannabis, but excludes pharmacies that are located in care homes or hospitals.

All manner of information can be collected from these prescription details. For example, the issue date, the amount of cannabis dispensed, the specialty of the prescribing doctor, and importantly the age and gender of the patient. On the basis of this raw data we produced calculations that provide an approximation, such as patients’ average daily dose and the total duration of use.

Is there an increase in the number of users in the Netherlands?

Certainly, you can observe a gigantic increase in users between the study periods 2003-2010 and 2011-2016. During the first eight years we identified 5,601 people. Six years later we identified 10,826. That is only for prescriptions of cannabis flos. In 2015, cannabis oil became available as a dosage form. In the year after Transvaal Apotheek in The Hague introduced cannabis oil, there are now 6.720 patient prescribed the oral dose form.

We also calculated how many patients there were in relation to the total Dutch population. Those figures are spectacular. In 2003, 6.4 patients per 100,000 inhabitants used a medicinal cannabis product. By 2010,this had moved up to 6.9, which is not exactly a gigantic leap in use. However, by 2016 we note that 24.6 patients per 100,000 inhabitants are prescribed medicinal cannabis, either as cannabis flos or oil.

The introduction of cannabis oil at the end of 2015 had a significant impact on the figures?

The availability produced an enormous increase. In 2016 alone, the number of patients prescribed oil was much higher than for cannabis flos. Unfortunately, cannabis oil was introduced too recently to provide reliable data on the average daily use or other interesting aspects. However, those data demonstrate that patients prescribed oil were often older and more often female compared to patients who prescribed cannabis flos.

What do the figures say about the age structure and gender distribution of the average Dutch patient?

The largest group of patients is over 40 years of age. Eighty percent of the flos users are older than forty years, and this number is 88 percent for the patients who are prescribed cannabis oil. About the same number of men and women are prescribed cannabis flos. In relation to oil, women have a slight majority (60%). Most prescriptions are among patients aged between 41 and 60 years old (42.9%), followed by the category of 61-80 year olds (30.9%). So they are an older group, on average.

In this study we compared the current data with previously published material. The age distribution of patients remained virtually the same for the two study periods. However, there was a slight shift in the gender split – the percentage of female patients fell from 57.1%  to 51.4%.

Why should we care about these Dutch patients’ figures?

We have been gathering data about medicinal cannabis use in the Netherlands for more than 15 years. We can learn a lot about actual usage. As far as I know, there is nowhere else in the world where these figures are collected centrally. Not even in Canada, which was the first country in the world to start with a medicinal cannabis programme. In other words, these figures are fairly unique and, particularly when it concerns a daily dose of 0.7 gram. The Netherlands has a prescriber-pharmacy model, where guidance for using medicinal cannabis is actively provided. This is important because not every patient has the same course of treatment meaning a doctor and patient and pharmacy work together to find the correct dose and improve patient safety.

This data provides a framework for a doctor to take into account when considering prescribing for their patient.

Can you say something about the duration of use?

The figures demonstrate that as the patient gets older, the number of days they use medicinal cannabis reduces. While it is possible to calculate an average duration, but it is difficult to interpret, given the average duration of use is likely to be affected by deaths in the highest age category.

The daily cannabis dose in the Netherlands has been around 0.7 gram for more than 10 years. What does that tell us?

This shows clearly that there is no increase in the consumption of medicinal cannabis in the Netherlands. Policymakers may have fears that the introduction of medicinal cannabis will lead to an increased patient tolerance, physical addiction and dependency. In the Netherlands, policymakers fears are laid to rest with these figures; over a period of 10 years we cannot find an indication for unwarranted increased in medicinal cannabis use.

Can you say something about what conditions Bedrocan products are prescribed?

Unfortunately I cannot provide an accurate answer to this question. The reason is that we do not have the right information. The disease or complaint of the patient is not stated on the prescription, it just says who prescribed it. More than half of the prescribing doctors are GPs (59.2%), followed by specialists (27.1%). The data refer to specialisations, but when it says surgery, cardiology, or internal medicine you don’t know enough to identify the complaint.