Cannabis Linked to Sustained Relief From Pain, Fatigue

TOPLINE:

Medical cannabis use was associated with improvements in health-related quality of life (QOL) in patients with chronic illnesses over 12 months, with sustained benefits for chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression, a new study showed.

METHODOLOGY:

QUEST was a multicenter prospective study that included more than 2000 adult participants (mean age, 50 years; 63% women) with chronic health conditions between 2020 and 2021 and from across Australia.The chronic conditions included musculoskeletal pain, neuropathic pain, insomnia, anxiety, and mixed depressive and anxiety disorder.All participants were prescribed one of four commercially available medicinal cannabis oil products with varying ratios of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to cannabidiol (CBD; 1 mg:20 mg, 10 mg:10 mg, 20 mg:5 mg, and 0 mg:50 mg).Health-related QOL, pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, and motor function were assessed using questionnaires filled out at baseline and at regular intervals over 12 months.

TAKEAWAY:

By 12 months, 70% of initial opioid users reduced or discontinued their use of the medications. Clinically meaningful improvements were observed in health-related QOL, as measured with the scires of the EuroQOL Five-Dimension Scale and QOL Questionnaire for patients with cancer (Cohen’s d, 0.5 and 0.9, respectively).Participants with chronic pain showed significant improvements in Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pain Intensity and PROMIS Pain Interference scores (mean improvement for both, 4.9; Cohen’s d, 0.8).Patients with anxiety disorders and depression had clinically meaningful improvements in Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) anxiety and DASS depression scores (Cohen’s d, 0.7 for both).There were also significant improvements in PROMIS sleep disturbance (Cohen’s d, 0.8) and PROMIS fatigue (Cohen’s d, 0.5) scores.

IN PRACTICE:

“Current clinical guidelines support prescribing [medical cannabis] to patients who are interested in trialling it for conditions not responding to conventional treatments, and our findings suggest any improvements would be apparent quickly and maintained long-term,” the investigators wrote.

“Evidence on optimal CBD:THC ratios for different health conditions is emerging and will improve prescribing practices,” they added.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Margaret-Ann Tait, The University of Sydney, Sydney Nursing School, Sydney, Australia. It was published online on April 2 in PLOS ONE.

LIMITATIONS:

This single-arm observational study could not confirm causality because of a lack of control group, and observed effects may have reflected placebo response. Attrition bias may have occurred as participants who dropped out appeared to have experienced less benefit. Only a small proportion of patients provided reasons for withdrawal, and financial costs may have affected retention, potentially biasing the sample toward higher-income individuals. Data on adverse events were not systematically collected. Additionally, the findings may not have been generalizable to products or administration methods other than those used in the study.

DISCLOSURES:

The University of Sydney received funding from Little Green Pharma Ltd to conduct this study. One investigator reported being an employee of the funding company.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.