TABLE 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with treatment refractory chronic pain receiving oral cannabinoid therapy (N = 529)
| THC | CBD | THC/CBD | p‐value | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n = 284 | n = 198 | n = 47 | N = 529 | ||
| A. Characteristics | |||||
| Gender, n (%) | |||||
| Female | 180 (63) | 154 (78) | 34 (72) | 0.0030 | 368 (70) |
| Male | 104 (37) | 44 (22) | 13 (28) | 161 (30) | |
| Age | |||||
| Mean years ± SD | 61 ±15.2 | 59 ±16.9 | 51 ±12.5 | <0.0001 | 60 ±15.9 |
| BMI | |||||
| Mean ± SD | 26.4 ±5.9 | 25.6 ±5.5 | 24.6 ±0.9 | 0.0961 | 25.9 ±5.7 |
| Days from baseline to follow‐up | |||||
| Median (IQR) | 49 (40–63) | 57 (44–68) | 63 (40–77) | 0.0017 | 56 (42–65) |
| Range | 28–98 | 28–98 | 28–98 | 28–98 | |
| Dose (mg) | |||||
| Median per day (IQR) | 7.5 (7.5–14.9) | 33.4 (33.4–33.4) | 7.1 (3.8–15.0) + | — | — |
| 31.7 (20.9–33.4) | |||||
| Range | 0.8–24.9 | 3.3–125.3 | 0.8–40 + 1.7–50.1 | — | — |
| Missing | 32 | 17 | 5 + 7 | ||
| B. Diagnostic categories, n (%) | |||||
| Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (DM00‐DM94) a | 51 (18) | 64 (32) | 11 (23) | 0.0013 | 126 (24) |
| Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (DS00‐ DT98) b | 77 (27) | 33 (17) | 9 (19) | 0.0220 | 119 (23) |
| Diseases of the nervous system (DG00‐ DG99) c | 35 (12) | 20 (10) | 3 (6) | 0.4275 | 58 (11) |
| Malignant neoplasms (DC00‐DC97) and cancer‐related medical care inducing neuropathic pain d | 32 (11) | 5 (3) | 9 (19) | 0.0001 | 46 (9) |
| Other diagnoses e | 20 (7) | 12 (6) | 2 (4) | 0.7440 | 34 (6) |
| Multiple diagnoses f | 69 (24) | 64 (32) | 13 (28) | 0.1524 | 146 (28) |
Note: THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol); CBD (Cannabidiol); SD (Standard deviation), BMI (Body mass index), IQR (Interquartile range). Statistics: Chi2 (Gender; Diagnostic categories), One‐way ANOVA (Age; BMI), Kruskal–Wallis (Days from baseline to follow‐up).
Fibromyalgia n = 30, arthrosis n = 26, rheumatoid arthritis n = 18, degenerative disk disease n = 12, spinal stenosis n = 9, scoliosis n = 7, herniated disc n = 6, other musculoskeletal diseases n = 17.
Post‐surgery n = 80, post‐injury=35, other external causes n = 5.
Neuropathies n = 29, headache n = 11, systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system for example, Parkinson n = 6, other neurological diseases n = 12.
Breast cancer n = 12, Cancer in digestive organs n = 10, cancer presumed to be primary, of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue n = 6, respiratory and cancer in male genital organs n = 5, other malignant neoplasms n = 13. Cancer with metastases n = 17 (37%).
Other diagnoses cover “Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (DQ00‐99)” for example, Ehlers‐Danlos, “Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (DR00‐DR99)” for example, burning mouth syndrome, “Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (DE00‐DE90) for example, Fabry disease, “Diseases of the blood and blood‐forming organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism (DD50‐DD89)” for example, MBL deficiency, “Certain infectious and parasitic diseases (DA00‐DB99)” for example, HIV, “Diseases of the digestive system (DK00‐DK93)” for example, Crohns disease, “Diseases of the genitourinary system (DN00‐DN99) for example, endometriosis.
Patients registered with more than one diagnosis as the reason fororal cannabinoid therapy.