Clinical Outcomes of Cannabis for PTSD

Welcome to Cannabis Conclusions, a unique educational series from Higher Learning LV that is targeted at hemp and cannabis industry professionals. This series provides readers with the conclusion section from important modern peer-reviewed research studies.

A December 2022 study entitled "Assessment of clinical outcomes in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: analysis from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry" that was published in the journal Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics investigated the "health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes and adverse events in patients prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)."

Reported the study: "Of 162 included patients, 89 percent were current/previous cannabis users. Median daily CBMP dosages were 5.00 mg of cannabidiol and 145.00 mg of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Significant improvements were observed in PTSD symptoms, sleep, and anxiety across all follow-up periods."

"Significant improvements were observed in PTSD symptoms, sleep, and anxiety across all follow-up periods."

The study's authors reported that "220 adverse events [were] reported by 33 patients, with the majority graded mild or moderate in severity." Insomnia and fatigue were the most common adverses events, affecting 12 percent of study participants.

Study Conclusions

"This observational study suggests an association between CBMP treatment and improvement in PTSD-specific, HRQoL, sleep, and anxiety outcomes at up to 6-month follow-up. Treatment safety assessed via AE incidence demonstrated minimal severity and no life-threatening events, in line with evidence from similar patient cohorts.

"Alongside positive changes in PROMs, this suggests CBMPs were well-tolerated and adverse events manageable. Moreover, patients with previous exposure to cannabis continue to benefit after initiating treatment with CBMPs.

"Patients with previous exposure to cannabis continue to benefit after initiating treatment with cannabis-based medicinal products."

"However, owing to limitations discussed in this study, definitive conclusions on efficacy or causality are limited and results should be interpreted considering the subjectivity of PROMs. Nevertheless, this study can serve to inform future randomized placebo-controlled trials with the aim of confirming these promising effects, whilst informing current clinical practice.

"Future work should also focus on including objective measures, determining optimal dosages and conducting comparisons to existing treatments to better inform prescribing of add-on or sole CBMP therapy."

View the original study.

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