New study highlights experience of New Zealand patients prescribed CBD

Patients report benefit from CBD treatment for a wide range of health conditions

The first audit of the experience of New Zealand patients prescribed CBD has been published. Cannabidiol prescription in clinical practice, reported on an audit of the first 400 patients prescribed CBD in New Zealand by Dr Graham Gulbransen. Although this data is not a controlled trial, it nevertheless provides interesting information on the characteristics of patients who seek or are referred for medical cannabis treatment and for which medical conditions.

Patients had an average age of 51 and slightly more women than men were involved in the study. Patients were allocated into one of four groups based on their presenting symptoms. The groups were Non-cancer pain, Mental Health symptoms, Neurological symptoms and cancer symptoms.

Primary Indication for CBD prescription

Patients completed a health questionnaire before they began a course of treatment with CBD oil and again after about a month. Patients reported an overall improvement in their global level of health and statistically significant improvements in symptoms such as pain, anxiety or depression for those in the non-cancer pain and mental health symptom groups.

The majority of patients (70%) reported good to excellent benefit with 30% reporting no benefit.

Around 10% of patients experience a side effect such as vivid dreams or sedation and about 12% of patients reported improved sleep. The study doesn’t prove the value of CBD therapy as there was no comparison group of patients who didn’t receive any medication, however it does provide useful information on the types of patients who are prescribed CBD and the types of benefits they report receiving from it.

mcinfo has a more comprehensive summary available for healthcare professionals on our site. The full paper can be viewed here.