Cannabis-based medicinal products improve pain, sleep in fibromyalgia

 

Cannabis-based medicinal products improve pain, sleep in fibromyalgia

ByRob Volansky

Key takeaways:

Cannabis-based medicinal products yielded modest improvements in fibromyalgia patient-reported outcomes.

More data are needed to interrogate these effects, researchers said.

Patients with fibromyalgia who used cannabis-based medicinal products demonstrated modest, medium-term improvements in pain, anxiety and sleep, according to data published in Clinical Rheumatology.

“It is estimated that 1 in 2 patients with fibromyalgia consume cannabis, and a cross-sectional study found that in this group, 82% experience an improvement in pain,” Madhur Varadpande, MBBS, of the Medical Cannabis Research Group and department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, and colleagues wrote. “However, there is a lack of consensus on the effectiveness of [cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs)] in treating fibromyalgia due to a paucity of high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs).”

 

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Data were derived from Varadpnade M, et al. Clin Rheumatol. 2025;doi:10.1007/s10067-025-07846-6.

To examine changes in patient-reported outcomes and adverse events among patients with fibromyalgia using CBMPs, Varadpande and colleagues gathered data from the U.K. Medical Cannabis Registry. A total of 497 patients using cannabinoid products for fibromyalgia were included in the case series.

 

Outcome measures included Fibromyalgia Symptom Severity, Fibromyalgia Widespread Pain Index, EQ-5D-5L, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Single-Item Sleep Quality Scale assessed at baseline to follow-up at 1, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months.

 

Results showed that all patient-reported outcome measures improved from baseline through all follow-up time points (P < .01). According to the researchers, cannabinoid doses greater than 25 mg per day and previous cannabis use were associated with an increased likelihood of improved fibromyalgia-specific measures (P < .05).

 

Meanwhile, safety data showed that 227 patients, or 45.67% of the cohort, reported a total of 2,100 adverse events, for a rate of 422.54%. Most of the adverse events were considered mild to moderate, observed in 1,792 patients (85.33%). Fatigue was the most commonly reported event, occurring in 153 participants (30.78%).

 

“This study found treatment with CBMPs in fibromyalgia was associated with short to medium-term improvements in pain, anxiety, sleep, and general quality of life,” Varadpande and colleagues wrote. “There was a high incidence of AEs, perhaps due to its central sensitization mechanism, associated with an increased susceptibility to AEs. However, these findings must be interpreted within the limitations of the study design. More randomized controlled trials are warranted, but this large analysis provides real-world data to inform their conduct.”

 

All patient-reported outcome measures improved from baseline through all follow-up time points.

 

Cannabinoid doses greater than 25 mg per day and previous cannabis use were associated with an increased likelihood of improved fibromyalgia-specific measures.

 

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Source:

Varadpnade M, et al. Clin Rheumatol. 2025;doi:10.1007/s10067-025-07846-6.