Safety and Efficacy of Medical Cannabis in Fibromyalgia
tikunolamusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/F...Posted Jul 27, 2019, 12:01 PM UTC
1112
tikunolamusa.com
Abstract: Background: Chronic pain may be treated by medical cannabis. Yet, there is scarce evidence to support the role of medical cannabis in the treatment of fibromyalgia. The aim of the study was to investigate the characteristics, safety, and effectiveness of medical cannabis therapy for fibromyalgia. Methods: A prospective observational study with six months follow‐up period based on fibromyalgia patients who were willing to answer questionnaire in a specialized medical cannabis clinic between 2015 and 2017. Results: Among the 367 fibromyalgia patients, the mean age was 52.9 ± 15.1, of whom 301 (82.0%) were women. Twenty eight patients (7.6%) stopped the treatment prior to the six months follow‐up. The six months response rate was 70.8%. Pain intensity (scale 0–10) reduced from a median of 9.0 at baseline to 5.0 (p < 0.001), and 194 patients (81.1%) achieved treatment response. In a multivariate analysis, age above 60 years (odds ratio [OR] 0.34, 95% C.I 0.16–0.72), concerns about cannabis treatment (OR 0.36, 95% C.I 0.16–0.80), spasticity (OR 2.26, 95% C.I 1.08–4.72), and previous use of cannabis (OR 2.46 95% C.I 1.06–5.74) were associated with treatment outcome. The most common adverse effects were mild and included dizziness (7.9%), dry mouth (6.7%), and gastrointestinal symptoms (5.4%). Conclusion: Medical cannabis appears to be a safe and effective alternative for the treatment of fibromyalgia symptoms. Standardization of treatment compounds and regimens are required.
Of note is that the patients in the trial had an average pain intensity of 9.0 before treatment, which would be at the high end for fibromyalgia. After treatment their pain was reduced to an average of 5.0, which is a good outcome IMO.
4
Fuck I'll take it. I've been using CBD oil and I've noticed a small improvement (still early tho)
3
It would be good to see more research on CBD and fibromyalgia. Many of us would benefit from a little bit of pain relief and would prefer a drug that can't get you high.
4
I use whole flower to combat my pain symptoms, have been since I was 16 as we couldn't get a diagnosis and it was the only thing that helped.
It's a game changer for sure, at least for me it changed my life and gave me some functionality.
Note: I have pretty severe pain, enough that I wasnt walking for awhile pre- MJ
2
This year a Dutch research university had a similar outcome, that medical cannabis (or mee specific THC) reduces pain and fatigue for fibromyalgia patiënts.
Also they concluded that CBD is not effective specifically for fibromyalgia. It is the specific psychoactive effect THC has that works.
I have tried CBD, which indeed did nothing for me, and THC which indeed works quite well. I am happy to live in a country where cannabis has been freely available at 'coffee shops' for very long now, and, due to that there is a lot of knowledge.
For those wanting to try THC (and I do want to state that I wont advice using it in nation where it is not legal) I can say from experience that you only need a little for it to easy fibro pain and fatigue. You only need about 1/10th or even less from what a 'recreational' user would take to get high. In the time I used it as medication I nevrr got high on it, felt it only a little.
4
I find that the CBD rich mmj is much less effective than the THC variation. I successfully treat migraine and fibro pain. Nothing helps with fatigue other that careful diet.
2
What does mmj stand for? (my apologies, I am not a native speaker of English)
I have both used cbd and thc and came to the conclusion that for me cbd didnt work, and thc did.
And I do tend to trust the results of academic research. Especially because for my country I know that results are not influenced by commerce (due to legislation).
I would like it if all the researchers that work in fibromyalgia would share results and coöperate more. In the last 12 months I have read about several researches on the subject conducted by universities around the world, all with similar results. It would be great of all these researchers would use eachothers work, gaining more in depth knowledge, instead of repeting eachothers findings. But I must admit I am not a scientist in the field, so I might overlook reasons for this repetance.
2
MMJ stands for Medical Marijuana. It includes THC and CBD therapies.
1
Thanks for the explanation!
1
My fibromyalgia is not severe but medical marijuana eliminates my daily pain. I still get flares but those can be eliminated too. I’m much happier now than in max ibuprofen doses or expensive savella
Prior to this research I thought MMJ would only work on people with mild pain. I thought that opioids were the only way to treat strong pain. Clearly MMJ is a valid treatment at all levels of the pain scale.
me too really. because other people i've talked to with fibromyalgia haven't had the success i've had, so i just thought it was because mine was mild. i also worried about people switching from opiates to mmj because i wasn't sure they'd get pain relief. but this study with pain of 9 down to pain of 5 is certainly promising.