Despite treatment with analgesics or disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, patients suffering from rheumatic disorders remain in pain and often turn to non-prescribed pharmacological substitutes such as consumption of cannabis. Consuming cannabis was found to be associated with pain improvement.

A meta-analysis and systematic review was conducted to explore the medical use of cannabis in patients suffering from rheumatic diseases.

The EMBASE, Cochrane library, and PubMed databases were extensively explored to find the relevant articles. The incidence of cannabis intake was estimated by metaproportion. Utilizing the inverse-variance method, the differences between users and non-users of cannabis were expressed as standardized mean differences. The effects of cannabis on pain in patients suffering from rheumatologic diseases were also investigated.

Notable in a sample size of 10, 873 participants, about 2900 subjects were found to consume cannabis [incidence 40.4%], and 15.3% of subjects specified that they were currently taking cannabis. Cannabis usage was found to be raised in the four fibromyalgia studies [68.2%, n=611] compared with seven articles concerning rheumatoid arthritis or lupus [26 %, n= 8168].

Cannabis intake was linked with a decline in pain intensity [visual analog scale pain at baseline 8.2 (2.9) vs 5.6 (3.5)mm over time]. Cannabis users were younger [58.4 ±11.4 vs 63.6 ± 12.1)years], more often smokers [Odds ratio, OR 2.91] or unemployed [OR 2.40], and had elevated pain intensity [5.0 ± 2.4 vs 4.1±2.6 mm] compared to non-users. 

Approximately 20% of patients having rheumatologic diseases actively consume cannabis, with alleviation in pain. The issue of cannabis usage in managing such individuals should be discussed during a medical consultation, specifically with cannabis-based standardized pharmaceutical products.