A new year-long study has added to the growing body of evidence that cannabis improves the quality of life for patients with chronic conditions.
UK research published in the Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology found medicinal cannabis helped patients suffering from a range of conditions including chronic pain, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and inflammatory bowel disease.
Using validated questionnaires at baseline, one, three, six and 12 months, researchers analysed clinical outcomes of nearly 3,000 patients with the results showing reduced anxiety and improved sleep.
Medication – vaporised cannabis or ingested extracts containing THC and CBD – was generally well tolerated with only mild-to-medium adverse effects in 17% of participants, the study found.
“This observational study suggests that initiating treatment with cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMP) is associated with an improvement in general health-related quality of life, as well as sleep and anxiety-specific symptoms up to 12 months in patients with chronic illness,” the authors said.
The study found that even those patients consuming illicit cannabis at baseline still experienced an improvement after taking medicinal cannabis.
Despite the medication being well tolerated by most patients, researchers said the risk of adverse effects “should be considered” before prescribing cannabis.
“In particular, female and cannabis-naive patients are at increased likelihood of experiencing adverse events,” the report stated.
“These findings may help to inform current clinical practice, but most importantly, highlight the need for further clinical trials to determine causality and generate guidelines to optimise therapy with CBMPs.”
All participants had previously been enrolled on the UK Medical Cannabis Registry.
