Data taken from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry has shown a positive association between cannabis and improved health-related quality of life for people who have been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
IBD is an umbrella term for conditions that affect the stomach. Symptoms can range from mild stomach aches and diarrhoea to drastic weight loss that can require the patient to undergo major surgery, such as the removal of part of the bowel.
Traditional treatments for IBD use steroids to control symptoms, but these drugs often come with side effects that some patients deem to be worse than their IBD symptoms. Due to the limitations patients are faced with when treating their IBD scientists have been looking at how cannabis may be able to help.
In a report, published in the journal Expert Review of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, scientists from Imperial College London and Curaleaf studied responses from UK-based patients who are currently being prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs), are contributing to the UK Medical Cannabis Registry, and have been diagnosed with IBD.
The data was extracted from the responses of 116 patients through questionnaires designed to assess levels of IBD symptoms (SIBDQ), sleep quality (SQS), levels of anxiety (GAD-7), and the health-related quality (EQ-5D-5 L Index) of life of the patients. These questionnaires were completed by patients for 18 months from the start of their treatment with CBMPs.
The results showed an improvement in all parts of the questionnaires. The study’s authors wrote, “There were improvements in the SIBDQ, GAD-7, SQS and EQ-5D-5 L Index. At 18 months, 30 (25.86%) patients achieved a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in the SIBDQ. Patients with severe baseline anxiety and above-median THC doses were more likely to achieve this MCID.”
The results from the current study are consistent with those from similar studies that have proved cannabis to be of assistance for those who live with the symptoms of IBD.
One similar randomised controlled study for patients with Crohn’s disease found 45% of participants in the group being prescribed cannabis to be in remission after being prescribed cannabis for 8 weeks, compared to only 10% of participants in the placebo group.
Scientists from the current study concluded that general quality of life, as well as other metrics such as IBD symptoms, anxiety and sleep quality of life, improved for patients after 18 months.
“CBMP treatment was associated with improvement in IBD-specific outcomes in patients and general HRQoL over 18 months,” the study authors wrote. “However, causation cannot be inferred. Hence, randomized controlled trials are still required”.
This story first appeared on leafie, view here
Author: Kevin Dinneen
