Charlottesville, VA: The administration of a topical formula containing hemp-derived CBD is associated with significant improvements in patients with thumb basal joint arthritis, according to randomized clinical trial data published in the Journal of Hand Surgery.
Researchers with the University of Virginia School of Medicine assessed the twice-daily application of 1 ml of topical CBD (6.2 mg/ml) with shea butter versus placebo in 18 patients with symptomatic thumb basal joint arthritis.
Investigators reported, “Cannabidiol treatment resulted in improvements from baseline among patient-reported outcome measures, including Visual Analog Scale pain; Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand; and Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation scores, compared to the control arm during the study period.”
They concluded, “In this single-center, randomized controlled trial, topical CBD treatment demonstrated significant improvements in thumb basal joint arthritis-related pain and disability without adverse events.”
The results contrast those of a 2021 Danish study reporting that the oral administration of synthetic CBD did not mitigate pain in patients with hand osteoarthritis.
Canadian survey data published earlier this month in the journal Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology reported that one in five patients with arthritis acknowledge using cannabis therapeutically.
Full text of the study, “A randomized controlled trial of topical cannabidiol for the treatment of thumb basal joint arthritis,” appears in the Journal of Hand Surgery. Additional information on cannabis and arthritis is available from NORML.
Source: NORML – make a donation