SynthesisPain research & management2026
Efficacy and Safety of Cannabis Extracts for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Preclinical and Human Studies.
Synthesis in Pain research & management, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Efficacy and Safety of Cannabis Extracts for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Preclinical and Human Studies.Pain research & management · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInterest in cannabis extracts for chronic pain, including osteoarthritis (OA), is growing. This systematic review evaluated the efficacy of cannabis extracts in OA across preclinical and clinical studies.
methodsA comprehensive literature search was performed using Medline via Ovid, Embase via Ovid, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials database to identify studies published up to 2024. Studies assessing the efficacy and safety of cannabis extracts for OA in preclinical and clinical settings were included. Two researchers independently evaluated the risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool and Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) risk of bias tool.
resultsTwenty-six studies (20 preclinical and 6 clinical) met the inclusion criteria. Most preclinical studies (n = 20) examined the effects of cannabis extracts in preclinical animal models of OA and domestic dogs with spontaneous OA, assessing structural changes (n = 8), proinflammatory modulation (n = 9), and pain (n = 13). Preliminary findings indicated that cannabis extracts exerted chondroprotective, chondrogenerative, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects in OA models, reducing hyperalgesia and mechanical/thermal allodynia. Six clinical studies investigated pain, quality of life (QoL), and function. Four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) found no significant benefits in pain relief, QoL, or functional improvement with cannabis extracts. Adverse effects were generally mild.
conclusionPreclinical evidence provides preliminary, low-certainty support for the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and chondroprotective properties of cannabinoid-based therapies in OA. Current clinical evidence remains insufficient to establish efficacy for pain or function. Further high-quality, large-scale RCTs are necessary to confirm the efficacy and clarify the safety profile of cannabis extracts in OA management.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.