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Cannabis seems to ease the painful muscle stiffness typical of multiple sclerosis (MS), indicates phase III trial results published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Up to 90 per cent of MS patients endure painful muscle stiffness at some point during the course of their disease, which reduces their mobility and interferes with daily routine activities and sleep quality.
But current treatments often fail to resolve symptoms fully, and can be harmful, as a result of which many MS patients have experimented with alternative therapies, including cannabis.
Adult MS patients with stable disease, from 22 different specialist centres across the UK, were either randomly assigned to cannabis extract (tetrahydrocannabinol) daily (144) or a dummy pill (placebo) (135) for a period of 12 weeks.
The treatments were given in gradually-increasing doses, from 2.5mg up to a maximum of 25mg for two weeks, followed by maintenance doses for the remaining 10 weeks.
After the first two weeks of treatment, 87 per cent of those taking the placebo were on the maximum daily dose compared with just under half of those (47 per cent) taking the cannabis extract.
After 12 weeks, one in four patients treated with cannabis extract was taking the maximum daily dose, compared with over two-thirds (69.4 per cent) of those taking the placebo.
At the end of the study period, the rate of relief from muscle stiffness was twice as high among those given the cannabis extract as those given the placebo. Muscle stiffness was alleviated in just under 30 per cent of those given cannabis compared with just under 16 per cent of those treated with the placebo.
This difference was evident after four and eight weeks, and also extended to pain, muscle spasms and sleep quality, at all time points, the results showed.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2012; 83: 1125-32 doi 10.1136/jnnp-2012-302468.
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