Arthritis Patients Find Relief with Cannabis, According to Study
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap] new survey has found that 57 percent of those who suffer from arthritis have tried cannabis, and 90 percent of them claim that cannabis helped treat their symptoms.
The survey, conducted by CreakyJoints, involved over 1,000 arthritis patients and focused specifically at the consumer experience. “About half of patients (45 percent) said they started using marijuana or CBD to address arthritis symptoms they have despite taking medication,” the survey explains. “Talking to the doctor about your usage—and how it relates with the other medications you take—is critical, but our study found that there’s a disconnect between what patients want to know and what their providers are able to discuss.” The survey also showed that only 29 percent of those polled were satisfied with their current treatments.
Leafly spoke to one of the patients involved with the study to get more personal information. “I’ve been on narcotic medications for about four years now, and it’s kind of scary, because once you go over a certain amount, your body becomes tolerant, and then you’re just going to need more and more,” she said. “I don’t want to slide over that hill into the area where I need more narcotic medication when there’s something that is an alternative that appears to be way safer—like cannabis.”
“Anecdotally, and via this survey data, we know that there are many people with arthritis who benefit from marijuana and CBD products. However, we have to temper our potential excitement about adding these products to an arthritis management strategy, because there is so much yet to learn about how these supplements interact with people’s prescribed and over-the-counter medicines and if, in fact, they can be proven to positively impact a person’s experience of disease and symptoms,” said W. Benjamin Nowell, PhD, director of patient-centered research at CreakyJoints and an ArthritisPower co-principal investigator and poster author.
Other studies have also analyzed cannabis’ efficacy for cartilage loss in arthritis patients and it is a treatment option in some medical cannabis plans.
