What conditions can be treated with medical cannabis in the UK?

Patients often ask for the UK's list of qualifying conditions. There isn't one — the law leaves the decision to the prescribing specialist. What exists instead is a narrow set of licensed NHS uses, and a broader set of conditions private specialists consider case by case.

Why there is no official list

Some countries run a statutory list of qualifying conditions. The UK deliberately does not. When cannabis-based products were rescheduled in 2018, Parliament left the decision to the clinical judgement of specialist prescribers rather than defining who qualifies.

So when you see a "qualifying conditions" page — including the section below — read it as a description of what UK specialists commonly assess, not as a legal entitlement. The practical consequence is that your diagnosis opens a conversation; it does not settle it.

The three licensed uses

Three cannabis-based medicines hold a UK licence, and these are the uses the NHS prescribes for most often. Their evidence base is the strongest in this field, because it was strong enough to satisfy the medicines regulator.

Note what this table is not: it is not a menu. These medicines are prescribed by NHS specialist services for these specific uses, and access still depends on meeting the clinical criteria.

Conditions UK specialists consider privately

Outside those licensed uses, UK specialists in private practice consider a wider range of long-term conditions where standard treatments have not given adequate relief. The list below reflects common UK practice. It is not a promise, and the evidence behind each entry differs a great deal.

Each condition below links to its own guide, setting out what UK specialists consider, what the published research found — with a link to the study itself — and the risks that weigh against treatment.

Pain conditions

• Chronic non-cancer pain, including long-term back and neck pain
• Neuropathic (nerve) pain, including sciatica and diabetic neuropathy
• Fibromyalgia
• Arthritis-related pain, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
• Complex regional pain syndrome
• Endometriosis-related pain
• Cancer-related pain and palliative symptom control

Neurological conditions

• Multiple sclerosis, particularly spasticity and associated pain
• Epilepsy, including treatment-resistant epilepsy
• Tourette syndrome and some other tic disorders
• Parkinson's disease symptoms, in selected cases
• Cluster headache and migraine, in selected cases

Mental health conditions

• Anxiety disorders, including generalised anxiety disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Sleep disorders linked to an underlying condition being treated

Mental-health prescribing is assessed particularly carefully. THC can worsen anxiety in some people, and a personal or family history of psychosis or schizophrenia weighs heavily against THC-containing treatment.

Gastrointestinal and other conditions

• Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Nausea and appetite loss associated with illness or its treatment

Common is not the same as well evidenced

Chronic pain is the most frequent reason for private prescriptions in the UK, and it is also the condition for which NICE explicitly recommends against cannabis-based medicines outside a clinical trial. Both facts are true, and holding them together is the honest position.

NICE assessed the evidence for population-level NHS use and found it insufficient. That guidance does not remove a specialist's ability to prescribe an unlicensed medicine to an individual with unmet clinical need, which is the space private prescribing occupies. What it does mean is that you should expect your clinician to frame treatment as a monitored trial with a review point, and to be candid about how uncertain the evidence is for your condition. We go through this in more detail in Can medical cannabis treat my condition?

If your condition is not listed

Absence from a list is not a refusal. Specialists assess the person, not the label, and rarer conditions are considered on their individual merits.

What matters more than the name of your condition is whether it is diagnosed and documented, whether standard treatments have been properly tried, and whether the balance of benefit and risk works for you. If you are not sure where you stand, see What are the requirements?

Patient guide · Written by the Flora House editorial team · Last reviewed: 31 August 2026