Since medicinal cannabis was legalised in Victoria in 2016, there has been sustained interest in the drug for treating a wide range of conditions.
To inform clinical decision-making on the safety and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis, ISCRR carried out two evidence reviews for WorkSafe Victoria on the evidence regarding its use for the treatment of chronic pain, mental health issues, sleep disorders and nausea, in addition to opioid sparing effects, adverse effects and cost-effectiveness.
These reviews identified common limitations in the medicinal treatment evidence relating to injured workers. These included study bias (e.g. small or non-representative samples, competing interests), confounders (e.g. history/current cannabis use) and poor reporting (e.g. lack of dose details, selective outcome reporting, reporting adverse effects).
This research has supported treatment decisions for injured workers and future research is warranted to address the identified gaps.
These research reports are available to download from the ISCRR Clearinghouse.