New Study Shows Effectiveness of Cannabis in Treating Chronic Skin Itch
Although chronic skin itch may not sound like a dangerous or severe illness at first glance, in reality, much like conditions that cause persistent pain, this disorder can seriously impact a person’s quality of life. However, according to a new study, cannabis appears to be a highly effective remedy for suppressing these sensations and treating their underlying causes.
Currently, skin itch—also known as “chronic pruritus”—does not respond well to existing medications, despite ongoing research into dozens of experimental treatments worldwide. In most cases, these drugs provide only partial and temporary relief. However, a recently published study by a team of doctors from Johns Hopkins University concludes that compounds found in cannabis may serve as an effective and reliable treatment for this condition and its symptoms.
“Chronic pruritus manifests as an intense itching sensation on the skin’s surface. This disorder often occurs alongside a range of other systemic dermatological and neurological diseases,” the study states. “Despite tests and trials of potential medications conducted by both private and government labs, including the U.S. Public Health Service research center, we have yet to find an effective treatment for this disease. In this work, we examine one possible therapy—using cannabis plant extracts, whose effectiveness is supported by practical experiments and observations.”
“This disorder is difficult to treat due to its highly complex nature. It affects several biological systems in the body, causing skin itch through a variety of mechanisms and factors,” explains Dr. Shawn Kwatra, one of the study’s authors and an assistant professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University. “Based on experiments with volunteer patients who did not respond to other recognized or experimental treatments, cannabinoids, which have strong neuromodulatory properties, seem to act on all the factors involved in the disorder at once, allowing them to effectively suppress skin itch for extended periods.”
Case Study: Cannabis Relieves Severe Chronic Itch
To demonstrate the effectiveness of cannabis in treating itch, the study describes the case of a 60-year-old African American woman. She agreed to participate in the trial after several years of unsuccessful attempts to treat her itch, which had spread to her arms, legs, and large areas of her torso. At the start of the experiment, she suffered from a severe form of the disorder, complicated by skin wounds caused by frequent scratching. She had previously tried systematic pharmaceutical therapy, topical steroid creams, nasal sprays, and phototherapy.
According to Dr. Kwatra, cannabinoid extracts administered via vaporizer significantly reduced the patient’s sensation of itch, based on her own assessment. “Describing her subjective experience, after just a few sessions of vaporizing cannabis extracts, her discomfort level, on a ten-point scale, dropped from the maximum to about a 4, indicating a significant reduction in symptom severity,” he notes. “After a couple of weeks of testing, cannabinoids were able to completely eliminate the itch, which other treatments had failed to address.”
How Cannabis May Work Against Chronic Itch
Although the exact reason for the therapeutic effect of cannabis extracts is still unclear, Dr. Kwatra and his colleagues believe the mechanism may be directly related to the neuromodulatory effects of THC. In a similar way, THC can influence other sensations of bodily discomfort, such as chronic pain and inflammation, by affecting the ability of nerve endings to transmit signals that trigger these symptoms.
“At this point, we plan to conduct additional tests to determine the precise combination and concentration of cannabinoids effective in treating itch, as well as to compare the effectiveness of the proposed therapeutic blend in treating other subtypes of this disorder,” says Dr. Kwatra.