Characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aching, fatigue, poor sleep quality, and cognitive difficulties, fibromyalgia has no specific causes and no known cure, but a prospective observational study, “Safety and Efficacy of Medical Cannabis in Fibromyalgia,” has given fibromyalgia patients some hope. The researchers found significant improvement in pain intensity and fibromyalgia‐related symptoms among patients after six months of medical cannabis therapy.
“It's commonly accepted that chronic pain can be treated with cannabis, but there has been less evidence to support the role it plays in specifically treating fibromyalgia,” said Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, one of the lead authors on the study and head research scientist at the Tikun Olam research department in Tel Aviv, Israel, where it was conducted.
“Our data indicates that medical cannabis could be a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of fibromyalgia, especially for those who failed on standard pharmacological therapies. We show that medical cannabis is effective and safe when titrated slowly and gradually,” concluded the study, published in June 2019 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
