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Medical products derived from marijuana might have a mild benefit in treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis, based on reports from patients. Drugs containing the major chemical compounds in cannabis are associated with a limited and mild reduction in muscle contractions, bladder dysfunction and pain, based on patient self-assessments from clinical trials included in a major new evidence review.
However, patients’ self-reports of benefits related to muscle contractions differed from results of objective scales used by doctors. The doctors observed no such benefit from marijuana medications. The clinical trials also showed that cannabis-derived drugs come with few side effects and no serious ones.
The evidence review, conducted by Mari Carmen Torres-Moreno, of the University of Barcelona in Spain and colleagues, included clinical trials related to four cannabis-derived preparations: orally administered cannabis extract, nasally administered cannabis extract, and the drugs dronabinol and nabilone.
Dronabinol and nabilone are both synthetic versions of THC, the chemical in marijuana that causes intoxication. Both are used to treat nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. The new evidence review combined 17 clinical trials involving 3,161 patients. Researchers concluded from the review that cannabis-derived drugs can be considered safe and have limited effectiveness in treating MS symptoms.
Side effects associated with the drugs included dizziness, dry mouth, fatigue, intoxication, impaired balance, memory problems and sleepiness. But these did not lead to a statistically significant number of people dropping out of the trials.
In spite of very strong interest in cannabinoid therapy, there is relatively little in terms of good research to guide us in terms of what does and what doesn’t work, what works for which types of cannabis extracts also included cannabidiol, a chemical compound in marijuana that is not intoxicating but could have some medical benefit.