Sponsored by
'Scrap drugs trials'
A GRIEVING daughter has called for trials of a cannabis-based drug to be scrapped after her mother's death was linked to the experimental treatment.
Diabetic Rene Anderson, aged 69, developed severe mental health problems just hours after taking her first dose of the cannabis-derived drug Sativex.
A Sheffield inquest found that Sativex played "a significant role" in her mental ill health, which ultimately led to the Frecheville pensioner's death five months later in March 2004.
Her daughter Jacqui Sadler told The Star: "Sativex should be scrapped - my mother would still be alive today if she hadn't taken it. We're upset our mother was treated as a guinea pig for a drug that has been found to be at least a contributory factor to her death."
The inquest heard that on the first night of taking the drug, Mrs Anderson began hallucinating that her home was surrounded by X-Ray cameras.
She believed drugs had been planted in her daughter's handbag and said a "little man in her head" was telling her what to do.
She was described as being "confused and intoxicated" and her mental health deteriorated to the extent that she was "not the same person".
Within three weeks she was taken off the drug and rushed into the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where she had earlier taken part in the drug trials, funded by Diabetes UK.
She became completely incapacitated due to her mental ill health and died after being transferred to the Northern General Hospital. Mrs Anderson developed pneumonia as a result of her inability to move. She then suffered a heart attack, further respiratory problems and ultimately kidney failure.
Coroner Chris Dorries said: "On the balance of probabilities, I find that the initial drug reaction must have been a significant contributory factor in at least the initiation of the illness which continued."
The coroner ordered that a transcript of his findings
be sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regul-atory Authority, a government agency responsible for ensuring that all medicines are acceptably safe.
He recorded a narrative verdict, finding that she died from kidney failure due to Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome "following resolving pneumonia due to immobility arising from toxic brain syndrome".
Sativex, which is taken as an oral spray, is licensed in Canada where it is used as a pain reliever for people with MS and diabetic neuropathy sufferers.
The inquest could have far-reaching implications for the use of drugs derived from cannabis in the UK.
Retired supermarket supervisor Mrs Anderson, of Silkstone Close, was descr-ibed as a happy-go-lucky person who had no history of mental illness.
She suffered from diabetic neuropathy, an extremely painful condition where nerve endings are damaged from diabetes.
Mrs Anderson decided to take part in the trial after discussing it with her husband Donald, aged 75, as a "last resort" to cope with the extreme pain she was in.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
