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CBD for fibromyalgia

The largest trial of CBD for fibromyalgia gave 200 people 50 mg a day for 24 weeks. Pain fell slightly more with placebo than with CBD.

Facts checked 13 November 20266 min readHow we research
Trials show no benefit

A 200-person, 24-week placebo-controlled trial of 50 mg CBD a day found no pain relief, and a small inhaled high-CBD trial also found no benefit.

How we grade evidence

CBD has been tested for fibromyalgia in a large, well-run trial, and it did not work. In 200 Danish adults, 50 mg of CBD a day for 24 weeks gave no more pain relief than a placebo. A smaller trial of inhaled high-CBD cannabis also found no benefit for everyday pain.

Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes widespread pain, tiredness and poor sleep. Many people with it have tried CBD, which is why these results matter.

What the research shows

The Danish trial (Rasmussen 2025)

This is the largest and longest trial of CBD alone for fibromyalgia. Researchers at a specialist clinic in Denmark randomly gave 200 adults either plant-derived CBD (up to 50 mg a day) or an identical placebo for 24 weeks. Almost all participants (94.5%) were women.12

Measure CBD (100 people) Placebo (100 people)
Change in pain after 24 weeks (0 to 10 scale) 0.4 points lower 1.1 points lower
Difference between groups 0.7 points in favour of placebo
Function, sleep and quality of life No benefit over placebo
People who stopped because of side effects 7 7

The authors concluded that their findings “do not support CBD 50 mg daily as an analgesic supplement” (an analgesic is a pain reliever) for people with fibromyalgia.1 News coverage noted that the small advantage for placebo was not large enough to matter clinically.2

The Dutch inhaled cannabis trial (van de Donk 2019)

A Dutch team gave 20 people with fibromyalgia single inhaled doses of four cannabis varieties, in random order: a high-THC variety, a mixed THC and CBD variety, a high-CBD variety with less than 1 mg of THC (18.4 mg of CBD per dose), and a placebo. None of the products relieved spontaneous (everyday) pain better than placebo. More people reached a 30% drop in pain with the mixed THC and CBD variety (90%, against 55% with placebo), and pain relief went along with how “high” people felt. Only the two THC-rich varieties raised the pressure needed to cause pain. The high-CBD variety showed no pain-relieving effect on any measure.3

This was a single-dose study, so it says little about long-term use. It does show that the small effects seen were linked to THC.

Surveys and uncontrolled studies

An online survey of 2,701 people with fibromyalgia, mostly in the United States, found that about a third were using CBD and many reported some improvement. The authors noted their results were limited by selection bias and could not show cause and effect.4 A 2026 study of a CBD-containing cream in 30 women with fibromyalgia reported less local pain, but it had no placebo group and the product contained other ingredients, so the authors called their findings exploratory.5

The wider pain evidence

Fibromyalgia results match what has been found for pain in general. A 2024 review of 16 randomised trials of pharmaceutical-grade CBD that measured pain found that 15 showed no benefit over placebo.6 See our page on CBD for chronic pain.

What doses were tested

The Danish trial used up to 50 mg of CBD a day by mouth for six months.1 The Dutch trial used a single inhaled dose of about 18 mg.3 Both are within the Australian limit of 150 mg a day for pharmacist-only (Schedule 3) CBD.7

No trial has tested higher doses of CBD alone in fibromyalgia. In knee arthritis, though, 600 mg a day for eight weeks also failed to reduce pain and caused more liver enzyme rises than placebo.8 See CBD dosage: what trials used.

What Australian medical bodies say

  • Australian Rheumatology Association. Reported in 2021, its position statement said reviews of cannabinoids for chronic non-cancer pain, including fibromyalgia, “indicate at best modest efficacy with significant adverse effects”.9
  • Faculty of Pain Medicine (ANZCA). It says the evidence for cannabinoids in chronic non-cancer pain “remains insufficient to justify endorsement of their clinical use”, and advises doctors not to prescribe them for this kind of pain outside a registered clinical trial. The statement is listed as under review.10
  • TGA. The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s guidance urges caution for chronic non-cancer pain and says treatment should be stopped if benefit has not been shown.11
  • RACGP. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says medicinal cannabis should only be considered after first-line, evidence-based treatments have been exhausted.12

More detail is on what Australian medical bodies say.

Risks to know about

  • Side effects. In the Danish trial, the side effects most often thought to be drug-related included headache, worse fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea and dry mouth.2 Across all trials, CBD is most often linked to diarrhoea and sleepiness.13 See CBD side effects.
  • Liver. In healthy adults taking about 350 to 400 mg a day for four weeks, 5.6% had large rises in liver enzymes, which settled after stopping.14 See CBD and the liver.
  • Medicines for fibromyalgia. CBD adds to the drowsiness from sedating medicines and alcohol, and affects liver enzymes that break down many drugs.15 Ask a pharmacist before combining it with antidepressants, pain medicines or sleeping tablets. See CBD drug interactions.
  • THC products. Products with THC can impair thinking and driving. The TGA says patients should be advised they are not able to drive while being treated with medicinal cannabis.11 See CBD and driving.

If you are considering it

  • Talk to your GP about a fibromyalgia plan. Ask which treatments have the best evidence and whether you have tried them.
  • If CBD is suggested, ask about the Danish trial and what evidence supports a different result for you.
  • Questions worth asking: Does the product contain THC? How will it interact with my current medicines? How will we judge whether it is working, and when would we stop?

See talking to your GP about CBD.

Footnotes

  1. Rasmussen MU, Christensen R, Wæhrens EE, et al. Cannabidiol versus placebo in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, single-centre trial. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40846590/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Rheumatology Live. Cannabidiol not effective as analgesic in fibromyalgia, single-center study finds, September 2025. https://www.rheum-live.com/view/cannabidiol-not-effective-analgesic-fibromyalgia-single-center-study ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. van de Donk T, et al. An experimental randomized study on the analgesic effects of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis in chronic pain patients with fibromyalgia. Pain, 2019. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6430597 ↩ ↩2

  4. Boehnke KF, et al. Cannabidiol use for fibromyalgia: prevalence of use and perceptions of effectiveness in a large online survey. The Journal of Pain, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33400996/ ↩

  5. Rodríguez-Araya TL, et al. CBD-containing topical formulation for localized pain in fibromyalgia: a 12-week pilot feasibility study. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42421470/ ↩

  6. Moore A, Straube S, Fisher E, Eccleston C. Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. The Journal of Pain, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2023.10.009 ↩

  7. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Final decision on down-scheduling of low-dose cannabidiol, 2020. https://tga.gov.au/node/284859 ↩

  8. Pramhas S, et al. Oral cannabidiol as add-on to paracetamol for painful chronic osteoarthritis of the knee. The Lancet Regional Health Europe, 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10682664/ ↩

  9. Rheuma.com.au. Can cannabis help with chronic pain and inflammatory diseases? (report of the Australian Rheumatology Association position statement), 19 May 2021. https://www.rheuma.com.au/?p=568 ↩

  10. Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. Medicinal cannabis, including statement PS10(PM), 2021. https://www.anzca.edu.au/patient-information/about-pain-medicine/medicinal-cannabis ↩

  11. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Guidance for the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia: overview. https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/resource/guidance/guidance-use-medicinal-cannabis-australia-overview ↩ ↩2

  12. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Position statement: use of medicinal cannabis products in Australia (2019 update). https://www.racgp.org.au/advocacy/position-statements/view-all-position-statements/clinical-and-practice-management/medical-cannabis ↩

  13. Chesney E, et al. Adverse effects of cannabidiol: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials, 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32268347/ ↩

  14. EurekAlert. News release on Florian et al., cannabidiol and liver enzyme elevations in healthy adults, JAMA Internal Medicine, July 2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1089832 ↩

  15. US National Library of Medicine, DailyMed. Epidiolex (cannabidiol) oral solution prescribing information, revised 2026. https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=8bf27097-4870-43fb-94f0-f3d0871d1eec ↩

Common questions

Does CBD help fibromyalgia?

The best trial says no. In a Danish study of 200 adults with fibromyalgia, 50 mg of CBD a day for 24 weeks did not reduce pain compared with a placebo, and the placebo group actually improved slightly more. CBD also made no difference to function, sleep or quality of life.

Was the dose in the fibromyalgia trial too low?

It is possible a different dose would behave differently, but there is no trial showing that. For pain in general, a trial of 600 mg a day in knee arthritis also found no benefit and caused more liver enzyme rises. So far, higher doses have not rescued CBD as a pain treatment.

Why do so many people with fibromyalgia say CBD works for them?

In a large online survey, most people using CBD for fibromyalgia reported some improvement. Surveys like this attract people who already feel positive about a product, and fibromyalgia symptoms rise and fall on their own. A placebo-controlled trial is the only way to test whether CBD itself is responsible.

What about cannabis products that contain THC?

Those are different medicines with different risks, including drowsiness, dizziness and effects on thinking and driving. Some small studies of THC-containing products in fibromyalgia report modest effects, but the evidence is weak, and it does not apply to CBD on its own.

This page is general information, not medical or legal advice. Laws and evidence change; we show the date we last checked the facts at the top of every page. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

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