Medical Cannabis Significant Improvements in Fatigue Anxiety Depression and Pain

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Medical Cannabis Significant Improvements in Fatigue Anxiety Depression and Pain

Medical Cannabis Significant Improvements in Fatigue Anxiety Depression and Pain.

The Use of Medical Cannabis Linked to Significant Improvements in Fatigue, Anxiety, Depression, and Pain.

The use of medical cannabis has been associated with significant improvements in overall quality of life and levels of fatigue among patients with chronic conditions.

Cannabis therapy has also been linked to improvements in anxiety, depression, and pain levels, although the degree of sleep disturbances remained unchanged.

According to a study published on September 6, 2023, in the open-access journal “PLOS ONE” by researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia, medical cannabis therapy appears not to have improved reported sleep disorders.

Medical Cannabis Significant Improvements in Fatigue Anxiety Depression and Pain

Since 2016, Australia has begun approving medical cannabis prescriptions for patients with health conditions that do not respond effectively to other treatment methods.

Margaret-Ann Tait and her colleagues investigated a group of Australian chronic disease patients prescribed medical cannabis to better understand whether there were changes in patient-reported outcomes following cannabis treatment.

The authors surveyed 2,327 Australian chronic disease patients prescribed medical cannabis (tetrahydrocannabinol dissolved in medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) carrier oil and cannabidiol) between November 2020 and December 2021.

Patients self-reported their health-related quality of life, pain, sleep, anxiety, and depression before starting cannabis treatment, after two weeks of treatment, and monthly for three months.

Demographics and Reported Results of Patients

Of the surveyed patients, 63% were female, with an average age of 51 years (ranging from 18 to 97 years).

The most common conditions treated were chronic pain (69%), insomnia (23%), anxiety (22%), and anxiety/depression (11%), with half of the patients receiving treatment for more than one condition.

Over the three-month survey period, patients reported clinically significant improvements in health-related quality of life and fatigue measurements.

Patients also reported clinically significant relief from pain and significant improvements in moderate-to-severe anxiety and depression.

However, despite many patients being prescribed cannabis for insomnia, overall reported sleep disturbances did not improve.

Limitations and Further Research

While 30 patients formally withdrew from the study due to “unnecessary side effects,” adverse reactions were not measured in the study.

Nevertheless, these results suggest that medical cannabis can effectively help manage chronic conditions that were previously untreatable.

The authors also noted that further research and development may be required for the cannabis oil products used in this study to successfully treat patients with insomnia and sleep disorders.

The authors concluded, “Participants reported improvements in health-related quality of life, fatigue, and health conditions related to anxiety, depression, and pain during the first three months of receiving medical cannabis treatment.”