Health-related quality of life in patients accessing medicinal cannabis in Australia: The QUEST initiative results of a 3-month follow-up observational study

by Margaret-Ann Tait, Daniel S.J. Costa, Rachel Campbell, Richard Norman, Leon N. Warne, Stephan Schug, Claudia Rutherford AimsPatients with chronic health conditions not responding to conventional treatment can access medicinal cannabis (MC) prescriptions from clinicians in Australia. We aimed to assess overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), pain, fatigue, sleep, anxiety, and depression in a large real-world sample of patients accessing prescribed medicinal cannabis. We hypothesized that all patient-reported outcomes (PROs) would improve from baseline to 3-months. MethodsThe QUEST Initiative is a large prospective multicenter study of patients with any chronic health condition newly prescribed medicinal cannabis between November 2020 and December 2021. Eligible patients were identified by 120 clinicians at medical centers across six Australian states. Consenting participants completed the EuroQol Group EQ-5D-5L health status questionnaire; European Organization for Research& Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaire (QLQ-C30); Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Short Forms in Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) before starting therapy, at 2-weeks titration, then monthly for 3-months. ResultsOf the 2762 consenting participants, 2327 completed baseline and at least one follow-up questionnaire. Ages ranged between 18 –97 years (mean 51y; SD = 15.4), 62.8% were female. The most commonly...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research