Exeter, United Kingdom: The use of cannabinoids long-term by patients with multiple sclerosis significantly ameliorates pain and improves mobility compared to placebo, according to clinical trial data presented last week at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
The findings, which are expected to be published shortly, are based on the results of a 52-week follow up trial of more than 500 multiple sclerosis patients. Initial results of the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial after 15 weeks previously appeared in the British medical journal, The Lancet, in 2003.
Lead researcher John Zajick of the Peninsula Medical School at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in Britain said that the follow up trial showed that patients gained significantly greater relief of disabling symptoms after one year of cannabinoid therapy than they did after 15 weeks. Patients received either oral THC, a cannabis extract, or placebo in the study.
“In the short-term study, there was some evidence of cannabinoids alleviating symptoms of multiple sclerosis; in the longer term there is a suggestion of a more useful beneficial effect, which was not clear at the initial stage,” Zajick said in a statement.
Speaking at the Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in May, Geoffrey Guy, Executive Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said that long-term human trials on cannabis extracts and MS performed by the company had also shown cannabinoids to provide patients with sustained relief – perhaps by inhibiting disease progression. Guy noted that patients in GW’s long-term trials have continued to experience relief from the disease without significantly increasing their intake of cannabinoids. Multiple Sclerosis is a progressively debilitating disease and these results would be unlikely unless cannabinoids are modifying the course of the disease, Guy speculated.
Clinical trial data performed on an animal model of multiple sclerosis has previously shown cannabinoids to possess such neuroprotective effects.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500.