Cannabis products associated with sustained improvements in patients with inflammatory arthritis

The sustained use of medical cannabis preparations provides safe and effective relief for patients with inflammatory arthritis, according to observational data published in the journal Clinical Medicine Insights: Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disorders.

British researchers assessed the use of botanical cannabis, oil extracts, and topical ointments in 192 patients with inflammatory arthritis-associated pain enrolled in the UK Medical Cannabis Registry. (British healthcare specialists may prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to patients unresponsive to conventional medications.) Researchers assessed changes from baseline in patient-reported outcomes at one, three, six, 12, 18, and 24 months.

Investigators reported that patients experienced marked improvements in pain, sleep quality, and overall quality of life. Adverse events associated with cannabis therapy were generally mild, including fatigue and dry mouth.

“All pain-specific measures showed improvements at each follow-up period,” the study’s authors concluded. “Concurrent improvements were observed in HRQoL [health-related quality of life]. … Fewer than 15 percent of participants reported adverse events throughout the study period, indicating that CBMPs [cannabis-based medical preparations] were well-tolerated. … These results … lend support for ongoing evaluation of CBMPs and underscores the need for RCTs [randomized clinical trials] for this medication class for inflammatory arthritis-associated chronic pain.”

Other observational studies assessing the use of cannabis products among patients enrolled in the Registry have reported them to be beneficial for those diagnosed with treatment-resistant epilepsy, cancer-related pain, anxiety, hypermobility disorders/Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, endometriosis, inflammatory bowel disease, insomnia, migraine, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, substance use disorders, and inflammatory arthritis, among other conditions.

Full text of the study, “UK Medical Cannabis Registry: An updated analysis of inflammatory arthritis,” appears in Clinical Medicine Insights: Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disorders. Additional information on cannabis and arthritis is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.