AUSTRALIAN patients prescribed medicinal cannabis maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life, fatigue and sleep disturbance across a one-year period, according to survey findings published this week.
Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and pain also improved over time for patients with these conditions.
The multicentre prospective study recruited adult patients with any chronic health condition newly prescribed medicinal cannabis oil between Nov 2020 and Dec 2021.
The team gathered 12-month follow-up data to see if improvements reported at three months would be maintained long-term.
Of the 2,700 consenting participants who completed the baseline assessments, almost 800 took part at 12 months.
Participants with clinician-diagnosed conditions completed questionnaires covering condition-specific symptoms and health-related quality of life, which encompassed physical, emotional, social and cognitive function, as well as bodily discomfort.
While the study was large enough to assess patients across a wide range of chronic conditions and socio-demographics in a real-world setting, with no control group, it was not possible to say it was definitely due to medicinal cannabis.
Despite this limitation, the results suggest that prescribing medicinal cannabis to patients with chronic health conditions may improve pain, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, and depression, as well as overall quality of life.
The findings also suggest that any improvements would be apparent quickly and maintained long-term.
Read the paper HERE. KB
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