New UK research is said to lay the foundations for further exploration of cannabis as a potential treatment for Long COVID.
Researchers at Drug Science have published the findings from a world-first trial examining the potential of cannabis to manage the debilitating symptoms of Long Covid.
Long COVID, a condition characterised by persistent symptoms following a COVID-19 infection, continues to affect the lives of millions of people, presenting a significant challenge for both patients and healthcare providers.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an estimated 2 million people in the UK were experiencing self-reported Long COVID in January 2023, with symptoms found to adversely affect the day-to-day activities of 1.5 million of those.
Many of the symptoms, including fatigue, difficulty concentrating and pain, as well as sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression, also occur in other conditions that can be managed with cannabis-based medicines.
A review of the existing research published by the same researchers at Drug Science last year identified ‘multiple lines of evidence’ to support the use of cannabis-based medicines in Long COVID.
The preliminary study, which was sponsored by Australian pharmaceutical company, Bod Healthcare, investigated the safety and tolerability of its MediCabilis 5% CBD Oil, a full-spectrum cannabidiol (CBD)-dominant cannabis-based medicinal product (CBMP), in treating Long COVID symptoms.
A 21-week single-arm open-label feasibility trial was conducted in 12 participants diagnosed with Long COVID. Participants received up to 3 mL of MediCabilis 5% CBD Oil per day for up to 5 months, followed by a dose reduction in the final month.
Questionnaires assessing aspects of health and daily self-reports of symptoms were collected via the Eva app from Research Smart (previously Alta Flora). A Fitbit was also used to record key physiological measures such as heart rate, activity, sleep, and oxygen saturation.
According to the findings, no participants reported any serious adverse events, with the drug demonstrating safety and good tolerability.
This preliminary study suggests that CBD-dominant CBMPs are safe and well-tolerated in individuals diagnosed with Long COVID.
The authors conclude: “The study drug was safe and well-tolerated, demonstrating feasibility of CBD-dominant cannabis-based medicinal products in individuals diagnosed with long COVID. However, there were limitations in research design related to recruitment strategy demonstrating a lack of feasibility in the approach implemented in this study. Future work with larger samples and incorporating a control group are required to test the efficacy of this treatment.”
Despite these limitations, the researchers believe the findings, alongside the accumulating evidence on the effectiveness of cannabis for alleviating symptoms characteristic of those experienced during Long COVID, ‘lay the foundations’ for future research into its potential benefits in this condition.
Drug Science CEO and head of research, Dr Anne Schlag, commented: “This is an exciting feasibility study showing both safety and tolerability of CBD dominant medical cannabis for the treatment of Long COVID – offering a potential new avenue to treat this challenging and still insufficiently understood condition.
“With our recently launched Drug Science Consultancy, we are looking forward to conducting more innovative research on medical cannabis to further develop the scientific evidence base, and ultimately, ensure that this medicine can be accessed by all patients who need it.”
Watch co-author of the study, Dr Hannah Thurgur, discuss these findings in more detail at Cannabis Europa 2023.
Home » Health » UK researchers publish first findings on cannabis and Long COVID
Sarah Sinclair is an award-winning freelance journalist covering health, drug policy and social affairs. She is one of the few UK reporters specialising in medical cannabis policy and as the former editor of Cannabis Health has covered developments in the European cannabis sector extensively, with a focus on patients and consumers.
She continues to report on cannabis-related health and policy for Forbes, Cannabis Health and Business of Cannabis and has written for The i Paper, Byline Times, The Lead, Positive News, Leafie & others.
Sarah has an NCTJ accreditation and an MA in Journalism from the University of Sunderland and has completed additional specialist training through the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society in the UK. She has spoken at leading industry events such as Cannabis Europa.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__cfduid
1 month
The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information.
__hssrc
session
This cookie is set by Hubspot. According to their documentation, whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. If this cookie does not exist when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session.
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement
1 year
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__hssc
30 minutes
This cookie is set by HubSpot. The purpose of the cookie is to keep track of sessions. This is used to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, viewCount (increments each pageView in a session), and session start timestamp.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie
Duration
Description
_gat
1 minute
This cookies is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites.
ac_enable_tracking
1 month
This cookie is set by the Active Campaign. This cookie is used to keep track of the site usage.
YSC
session
This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__hstc
1 year 24 days
This cookie is set by Hubspot and is used for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, utk, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).
_ga
2 years
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid
1 day
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form.
hubspotutk
1 year 24 days
This cookie is used by HubSpot to keep track of the visitors to the website. This cookie is passed to Hubspot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.
iutk
5 months 27 days
This cookie is used by Issuu analytic system. The cookies is used to gather information regarding visitor activity on Issuu products.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duration
Description
IDE
1 year 24 days
Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
mc
1 year 1 month
This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
test_cookie
15 minutes
This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
5 months 27 days
This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__smSessionId
9 hours
No description
__smVID
1 month
This cookie is set by Sumo. The purpose of the cookie is not yet known.
CONSENT
16 years 8 months 13 days 11 hours
No description
lfuuid
9 years 9 months 13 days 11 hours
Third party (Lead Forensics) cookie which enables us to track visitor behaviour on our site. Tracking is performed anonymously until a user identifies themselves by submitting a form.