An observational study from Canabo Medical Inc. found that 40 percent of patients prescribed medical cannabis to treat pain and anxiety stopped using benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, within 90 days and the percentage increased 45 percent within a year of cannabis treatment.
The data was drawn from more than 1,500 patients in Canada where Canabo operates 15 medical cannabis clinics.
Dr. Neil Smith, executive chairman of Canabo, called the results “extremely promising.”
“When conducting this type of research, experts are typically encouraged by an efficacy rate in the neighborhood of 10 percent,” he said in a press release. “To see 45 percent effectiveness demonstrates that the medical cannabis industry is at a real watershed moment.”
The average age of the study’s participants was 48, and about 43 percent were either temporarily or permanently disabled. Nearly 60 percent of the patients were female and more than 61 percent were seeking pain treatment. About 27 percent were interested in treatment for a psychiatric condition and about 11 percent for a neurological condition.
“To say that we’re encouraged is an understatement but there’s a lot of work still to be done,” Smith said. “We hope to conduct formal trials both in-house and in collaboration with others pending further analysis of what we believe to be one of the most promising advancements in many years.”
The company is also collecting data as to what extent cannabis can be used as an effective complement to or substitute for opioid therapies. The benzodiazepine study is expected to be published in the Dalhousie Medical Journal.
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