Medical cannabis therapy for chronic health issues may improve quality of life

Australian patients with chronic health issues who were prescribed medical cannabis enjoyed significant improvements in many health issues, says new research in PLOS ONE.

Since 2016, medical cannabis has been approved in Australia for prescription to people with health conditions unresponsive to other treatments.

So a group recently surveyed 2,327 people with chronic health issues who were prescribed medical cannabis. The participants were asked about their health-related quality of life, pain, sleep, anxiety and depression before beginning cannabis therapy, after two weeks of treatment, then once a month for three months.

Although many had been prescribed cannabis for insomnia, there was no progress in this area. However, significant improvements were seen in:

• Health-related quality of life;
• Fatigue;
• Pain;
• Anxiety and depression.

The authors did not measure negative side effects as part of the study, but 30 people withdrew from the study due to “unwanted side effects”. Overall, the results suggest medical cannabis may be effective in helping manage previously-untreatable chronic conditions.

Click here to read the original research.

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