Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in Australia showed improvements in their quality of life, fatigue and sleep disturbance over a 12-month period, according to new research published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Sydney, found that patients with anxiety, depression, insomnia and chronic pain also experienced sustained improvements in their condition-specific symptoms throughout the year-long assessment period.
Led by Margaret-Ann Tait, the research team analysed data from the QUEST initiative (QUality of life Evaluation STudy), which tracked adult patients with chronic health conditions who were newly prescribed medicinal cannabis oil between November 2020 and December 2021.
The findings showed that short-term improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL) reported at three months were maintained over the full 12-month period. The research also indicated that improvements in symptoms became apparent quickly after beginning treatment and were sustained long-term.
“This is promising news for patients who are not responding to conventional medicines,” the study said.
Of the 2,744 participants who initially enrolled in the study, 2,353 completed at least one follow-up questionnaire, with 778 participants completing the final assessment at 12 months. The questionnaires measured condition-specific symptoms and HRQL, which encompasses physical, emotional, social and cognitive function, as well as bodily discomfort.
Patients treated for generalised anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia and PTSD all showed improvements in their quality of life. While participants with movement disorders demonstrated improved HRQL, they did not show significant improvements in upper extremity function scores.
The study comes against the backdrop of increased access to medicinal cannabis in Australia following legislation changes in 2016, which allowed patients not responding to conventional treatments to receive prescriptions. Since then, more than one million new patients have been prescribed medicinal cannabis for over 200 different health conditions, a stark contrast to the estimated 60,000 cannabis patients in the UK.
While the research was conducted across a wide range of chronic conditions and demographics in a real-world setting, the researchers acknowledged limitations, noting that without a control group, changes could not be confidently attributed solely to medicinal cannabis treatment.
Despite this limitation, the researchers suggested the study results were valuable to the ongoing research around the use of cannabis as medicine, stating that “the findings from this study contribute to the emerging evidence-base to inform decision making both in clinical practice and at policy level.”
