London, United Kingdom: Patients diagnosed with chronic pain conditions report sustained improvements in their symptoms following their use of medical cannabis, according to observational data published in the journal Pain Practice.
British researchers assessed the use of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) consisting of either flower or oil extracts in 1,139 pain patients enrolled in the UK Medical Cannabis Registry. (Since 2018, British specialists have been permitted to prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to patients unresponsive to conventional medications.) Researchers assessed changes in patient-reported outcomes at one, three, six, and 12 months.
Consistent with prior observational studies, cannabis treatment was associated with improvements in patients’ perceived pain severity. The most frequently reported adverse events associated with cannabis preparations were fatigue, dry mouth, lethargy, somnolence, and insomnia.
“Following CBMP treatment initiation, the present study found improvements in mean pain-specific PROM [patient reported outcome measures] scores that are consistent with other comparable prospective open-label observational studies,” the study’s authors concluded. “Despite being limited by its observational design, the present study can be used to inform future RCTs [randomized clinical trials], in addition to current clinical practice.”
Data published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that nearly one in four pain patients residing in states where medical cannabis access is legal self-identify as marijuana consumers.
Other observational studies assessing the use of cannabis products in patients enrolled in the UK Cannabis Registry have reported them to be effective for those suffering from fibromyalgia, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, depression, migraine, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Full text of the study, “UK Medical Cannabis Registry: A clinical outcome analysis of medical cannabis therapy in chronic pain patients with and without co-morbid sleep impairment,” appears in Pain Practice. Additional information on cannabis and pain management is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.