The Effects of Cannabis Oil on Fibromyalgia

: by David Anthony Schroeder; on 01 February 2021

Cannabis Oil with THC used to fight pain.

Chronic pain is more than just a buzzword in today’s culture--it’s a serious problem for millions of people across America and the world.

It’s a problem that has led to overdependence on pharmaceutical drugs with negative side effects, a decreased quality of life for those suffering, and a feeling of hopelessness for many of never being able to find relief from this daily torment.

One of the most common chronic pain conditions that people suffer from is fibromyalgia, a condition that not only causes widespread pain throughout the body, but also sleep problems, fatigue, and many times mental or emotional distress. Roughly 10 million people across the US suffer from fibromyalgia.

And even though there are pharmaceutical drugs out there designed to try to provide relief from fibromyalgia, often the relief they provide isn’t worth the side effects that go along with them.

This has led scientists to look for a more natural, potentially effective option for people suffering from fibromyalgia. Something that could deliver relief for better pain management without having a plethora of negative side effects to go along with it. And one potential option they have found promising is cannabis oil.

Fibromyalgia and Cannabis Oil

Why cannabis oil, though? With the stigma surrounding cannabis for many people, why would scientists choose to study this particular plant in regards to potential fibromyalgia relief? The reason is that cannabis’s natural therapeutic properties can speak directly to the problems caused by fibromyalgia.

The cannabis plant has been used to treat pain for centuries. But in the last few decades, the use of it in traditional medicine has declined due to legal prohibitions. However, scientific studies on the plant’s therapeutic effects have continued to be conducted over the last 50 years; and in 2017, the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that the research shows that cannabis can be used as an effective treatment for pain, especially in the treatment of chronic pain in adults.

So some scientists decided that there needed to be some further investigation into whether or not cannabis oil might be a potentially effective and natural therapeutic option for people suffering from fibromyalgia.

The Study Details

The scientists conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial that lasted 8 weeks. It took place in Florianopolis, Brazil with 17 women who suffer from fibromyalgia. Their goal was to determine whether a THC-rich cannabis oil would have any benefit on the symptoms and quality of life of these women.

The women were randomly split up through a computer randomization program into 2 groups: a placebo group and a cannabis group. The women were informed of the possibility that they could be one of the members of the test group.

The average age of the women was 51.9 years old, and they were all residents of the same neighborhood in Florianopolis with a low socioeconomic profile and a high incidence of violence. The participants in both groups had self-medicated with mild analgesics and anti-inflammatory pills when necessary, as well as having previously used antidepressants, opioids, and benzodiazepines.

Before the women began the trial, they filled out a Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) to show how fibromyalgia was affecting their current lives, and they repeated filling out the questionnaires throughout the trial as well as at the end of the trial. The questionnaire is composed of 10 items: “physical function”, “feel good”, “work missed,” “job ability,” “pain,” “fatigue,” “morning tiredness,” “stiffness,” “anxiety,” and “depression”, each with a maximum possible score of 10. Total scores range from 0 to 100, and the higher the score, the greater the impact on one’s quality of life.

To start, the cannabis group received a 30-mL green glass dropper bottle containing cannabis oil (olive oil extraction) of the White Widow variety, at a 24.44-mg/mL concentration of THC and 0.51 mg/mL of CBD.

The initial dose was one drop of cannabis oil (~1.22mg of THC and 0.02mg of CBD) per day sublingually. Every participant was seen at baseline and then every 10 days for the next 8 weeks. Clinical and adverse side effects were assessed during each visit to determine whether a change in dosage was necessary or not; when dosage for a participant did increase, it was increased a maximum of one drop for each evaluation.

Before the study, there was no significant difference in the FIQ scores between the 2 groups, but that changed after the trial was complete. Those in the cannabis group presented a significant improvement in comparison on their FIQ scores as a whole, and specifically in the “feel good”, “pain”, “do work”, and “fatigue” scores. While they didn’t show the same improvement, the placebo group’s “depression” score improved significantly after intervention. They also found that there were no unpleasant side effects experienced by any of the participants.

This study concluded that the phytocannabinoids in the cannabis oil could be a low-cost and well-tolerated therapy for relieving symptoms and improving the quality of life in fibromyalgia patients.

Conclusion

This study, in conjunction with other studies done over the past 50 years, shows that cannabis oil is a potentially viable option for those suffering from fibromyalgia and other forms of chronic pain. And with the legal prohibitions on cannabis beginning to evolve throughout the world, the opportunities for this to become a more mainstream option for treating chronic pain will start to evolve as well.

Footnotes:

Ingestion Of a Thc-rich Cannabis Oil in People with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial

Carolina Chaves-Paulo Bittencourt-Andreia Pelegrini -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7593796/