Hot Topics in SpA

Healio spoke with Delamo I. Bekele, MBBS, clinical rheumatologist and assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, and Devon Charlton, MD, rheumatologist at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, about cannabis use for pain management in spondyloarthopathies.

In his video, Bekele discussed:

• “A lot of pros and cons and unanswered questions” about medical cannabis for pain management in general;
• Research that showed that patients with spondyloarthropathies who use medical marijuana are more likely to have coexisting fibromyalgia;
• The “limited” research in medical cannabis use for spondyloarthropathy management;
• How the increase of biologic use may lessen chronic pain and thus decrease the prescription of opioids;
• Legislative considerations;
• Why patients should be “open with their rheumatologists” if they use cannabis recreationally; and
• The future of cannabis use for pain management in spondyloarthropathies.

In his video, Charlton discussed:

• Cannabis use for pain management and the risks of THC;
• The lack of data regarding cannabis use in autoimmune disease;
• How the “pressure to move away from opiates” may have people looking for lower-risk options to help with pain, like medical marijuana, low-dose naltrexone and electrical stimulation devices;
• The importance of letting people know they’re taking cannabis recreationally “despite the stigma” and looking for the underlying issues that the recreational cannabis is helping with; and
• The need for more studies on cannabis use in spondyloarthopathies and other rheumatologic disorders, and how interest in this research topic will continue to grow now that cannabis is legal in many states and stigma is decreasing.