Longitudinal Relationship between the Introduction of Medicinal Cannabis and Polypharmacy: An Australian Real-World Evidence Study.

Background: Recent studies recommend medicinal cannabis (MC) as a potential treatment for chronic pain (CP) when conventional therapies are not successful; however, data from Australia is limited. This real-world evidence study explored how the introduction of MC related to concomitant medication use over time. Long-term safety also was examined.

A large Australian longitudinal cohort registry demonstrates sustained safety and efficacy of oral medicinal cannabis for at least two years.

Introduction: Oral medicinal cannabis (MC) has been increasingly prescribed for a wide range of clinical conditions since 2016. Despite an exponential rise in prescriptions and publications, high quality clinical efficacy and safety studies are lacking. The outcomes of a large Australian clinical electronic registry cohort are presented.