Effects of Sativex(®) Versus Placebo on Glucagon-like Peptide-1, Total Ghrelin, and Subjective Appetite in Older Adults with Poor Appetite: A Protocolized Secondary Analysis of a Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Ghrelin.

Medical cannabis has been proposed as a potential appetite stimulant in older adults with poor appetite through modulation of appetite-regulating hormones such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and total ghrelin, but the evidence remains limited.

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05503147; EudraCT nr.: 2021-002318-15.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 17 participants taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

This protocolized secondary analysis included 17 participants (≥65 years) with poor appetite from a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial.

Participants received Sativex® or placebo on two separate study days.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Ghrelin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Ghrelin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Ghrelin, giving a reference point.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Ghrelin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Effects/associations were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Appetite, Appetite Stimulants, Cannabidiol, Dronabinol, Drug Combinations, Ghrelin and Glucagon-Like Peptide 1.

The authors tagged it with the keywords malnutrition, older adults and poor appetite, cannabis-based medicine, Sativex®, glucagon-like peptide-1, ghrelin, hospital.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Ghrelin in 17 participants.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2026 (Nutrients), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.