How medical cannabis could help treat rare skin conditions

Leading dermatologists believe cannabis could have a promising role to play in treating rare and challenging skin conditions.

The UK’s first medical cannabis dermatology service was launched on Friday 11 September, for patients at Sapphire Medical Clinics.

Doctors will now be able to offer cannabis-based treatments to patients with rare skin conditions who have not responded to conventional therapies.

To date there is limited evidence to suggest that medical cannabis could be used to treat conditions such as atopic eczema, allergic contact dermatitis, genital psoriasis and generalised itching, as well as treating the symptoms of genital dysesthesia – which causes pain with no obvious explanation for it.

It is also thought it could have a role to play in reducing the inflammation caused by discoid lupus erythematosus and scarring alopecia, among other hard-to-treat diagnoses.

“In dermatology there are many skin conditions which are rare and don’t respond to first or second line treatments, meaning we sometimes we run out of options for patients,” said Dr Anastasia Therianou, consultant dermatologist at Sapphire, whose NHS practice is based at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

“This is a very exciting opportunity because evidence shows that cannabis does help as an anti-inflammatory agent and there are many conditions that this might be helpful for.”

Dr Therianou continued: “However, this is a new area and we still need more data.

“Our aim is not to give medical cannabis as a first line treatment, but to help patients who have tried other medications, or the medication available for their specific problem is not suitable for them.

She added: “This gives us the opportunity to offer them something new and through our patients we will be able to learn more and share our data to optimise the use of medical cannabis in dermatology in the coming years.”

Treatment for dermatological conditions may consist of either topical or systemic therapies and participating patients will be entered into a registry, where doctors will record their symptoms and any improvement in their conditions to help inform future studies.

Dr Richard Watchorn, a consultant dermatologist also based at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Sapphire, believes the findings could be groundbreaking in how serious skin conditions are treated.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of determining the efficacy cannabis has but there seems to be a phenomenal amount of potential,” he said.

“I’m very keen to realise that and help patients who have these types of conditions.

“As a dermatologist I often work with patients who have very resistant conditions or who don’t respond to anything, and these can have a devastating effect on every aspect of their lives.

Being able to access a new potential treatment is really important,” Dr Watchorn added.

“It’s a very exciting time and as the evidence base increases, these medicines could dramatically change the way we treat many different skin conditions.”

One patient who is hoping to benefit is 46-year-old Shane Pearce, who has struggled to find a treatment that works for his condition, he said: “I am pleased that patients who suffer from hard to treat skin problems such as mine now have an additional option in medical cannabis when standard therapies have not been effective.

“I have tried numerous natural balms and creams, but nothing worked so I welcome the opportunity to consider this treatment option at Sapphire Medical Clinics.”

Sapphire, the first medical cannabis clinic to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), treats patients with cannabis-based medicines for all conditions where there is clinical evidence for efficacy.

Sapphire’s medical director, Dr Michael Platt, commented: “We pride ourselves on individualised patient treatment delivered in a safe and effective way and rigorously monitored treatment outcomes and are very excited to partner with leading dermatologists to launch this service.”