Feasibility of a cannabidiol-dominant cannabis-based medicinal product for the treatment of long COVID symptoms: A single-arm open-label feasibility trial.

Abstract

To conduct a single-arm open-label feasibility trial of the safety and tolerability of a full-spectrum cannabidiol (CBD)-dominant cannabis-based medicinal product for treating the symptoms of long COVID. The treatment phase ran for a total of 21 weeks, followed by ~3weeks without the study drug. Participants received up to 3mL of MediCabilis 5% CBD Oil (50 mg CBD/mL, <2mg δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol/mL) per day orally. Monthly patient-reported outcome measures of common symptoms and daily self-report of symptoms were collected via a smartphone app. Key measures of heart rate, activity, sleep and oxygen saturation were assessed using wearable technology. Twelve (1 male, 11 female) individuals diagnosed with long COVID were recruited into the trial. All participants adhered to the treatment protocol for the duration of the study and there were no serious adverse events. Response rates for the research assessments were high with over 90% completion of patient-reported outcome measures and daily self-report. The study drug was safe and well-tolerated, demonstrating feasibility of CBD-dominant cannabis-based medicinal products in individuals diagnosed with long COVID. However, there were limitations in research design related to recruitment strategy demonstrating a lack of feasibility in the approach implemented in this study. Future work with larger samples and incorporating a control group are required to test the efficacy of this treatment.