Clinical outcomes of osteoarthritis patients using cannabinoid medicine

Osteoarthritis patients with chronic pain who were prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMP) in the UK were included in this 12-month study. It was published in April 2024 in the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy.

The patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) used were:

  • General Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7)
  • Single-item Sleep Quality Scale (SQS)
  • EQ-5D-5L (a self-assessed, health related quality of life, or HRQoL questionnaire)
  • Brief Pain Inventory (BPI)
  • short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2)
  • Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC)

 

77 patients with an average age of 60 were included. They used the following types of CBMPs based on specialist recommendations from their clinic:

  • dried flower (flos or granulate) was vaporized
  • oil-based formulations of isolated phytocannabinoids (oral or sublingual)
  • full-spectrum oil-based products containing cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids (oral or sublingual)

Patient symptoms were self-assessed and reported using the metrics listed above at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. 95% of the patients were prescribed  CBD and THC. Only one was prescribed THC only.

The median doses reported were:

  • CBD = 25.5 mg/day
  • THC = 105 mg/day

 

Key results:

CBMP initiation correlated with BPI pain severity (p = 0.004), pain interference (p = 0.005), and MPQ2 (p = 0.017) improvements at all follow-ups compared to baseline.

There were improvements in the EQ-5D-5L index (p = 0.026), SQS (p < 0.001), and GAD-7 (p = 0.038) up to 6 and 3 months, respectively.

there was an improvement in general HRQoL metrics across the follow-up period

 

So patients reported a statistically significant reduction in pain that continued for 12 months with daily doses. They also reported that their anxiety symptoms, sleep, and health-related quality of life improved.

 

The authors' conclusions:

These results suggest an improvement in pain-related outcomes for patients with osteoarthritis following the initiation of CBMP treatment.

CBMPs also appeared to be well-tolerated at 12-month follow-up

Though causality cannot be assumed in this observational study, results support development of randomized control trials for osteoarthritis pain management with CBMPs.

 

The full text article is here at Taylor and Francis Online.

 

Source:

Francis A, Erridge S, Holvey C, Coomber R, Holden W, Rucker J, Platt M, Sodergren M. Assessment of Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Osteoarthritis: Analysis From the UK Medical Cannabis Registry. J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother. 2024 Apr 26:1-14. doi: 10.1080/15360288.2024.2340076. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38669060.

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