A recent study by Mater hospital and the University of Queensland has found that CBD is no better than placebo in relieving symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. The double blinded placebo-controlled study examined the effects of CBD on pain, anxiety, depression, quality of life, and adverse events. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
144 patients receiving palliative care for end stage cancer received 100 mg/mL, 0.5 mL once daily to 2 mL thrice daily of CBD or matched placebo for 28 days. The results showed no significant difference in the group that received CBD compared to the group that received placebo. However, there were no significant adverse events reported as well.
Surprisingly, 36% of the participants in the study wanted to go on with the CBD treatment, even when they believed that they had been in the active arm of the trial. According to the researchers, this goes to confirm the general optimism around medicinal cannabis, even though there is limited scientific evidence to support it.
“The best way to describe the uptake of medicinal cannabis following its legalization was as a social phenomenon—everyone wanted it, but there was little evidence to guide its usage,” said the lead researcher Professor Hardy.
However, the researchers highlighted possible benefits that were not examined in the study such as improved sleep and general improvement in well-being. And also taking a critical look, the study also possibly missed out on the entourage benefits of cannabis now that they offered CBD as an isolate. This is definitely something that needs to be looked into in future studies.
