Fibromyalgia (FM) patients frequently use cannabis therapeutically and most say it improves their disease symptoms, according to, “A cross-sectional survey study of cannabis use for fibromyalgia symptom management”, published in April 2024 in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers affiliated with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota USA (legalised medicinal use in 2015) surveyed 1,336 patients withfibromyalgia.
Half (49.5%) acknowledged using cannabis following their diagnosis. Ninety-nine percent reported using cannabis for pain and 94% reported using it to mitigate stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia. Eighty-two percent said it reduced their FM-related pain and most respondents also rated cannabis as effective in mitigating other disease symptoms.
Authors acknowledged that cannabis use among FM patients is “widespread” and most patients perceive it to have a “favourable impact on pain, stress and sleep disturbances”. Recent observational trial data from Germany and the United Kingdom reports that FM patients typically reduce their use of other prescription medications following their use of cannabis products.