Can you get medical cannabis for nausea or appetite loss in the UK?

This is one of the three licensed NHS uses — with an important boundary around it. Nabilone is licensed for nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, as an add-on when standard anti-sickness medicines have not worked. Nausea from other causes sits outside that entirely.

Is nausea treated with medical cannabis in the UK?

Yes, in one setting, on the NHS. Nabilone — a synthetic capsule with THC-like activity — is licensed in the UK for nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, as an add-on where standard anti-emetics have not given adequate control. NICE guideline NG144 recommends it for adults aged 18 and over in that situation. This is one of only three licensed uses of a cannabis-based medicine in the UK.

Note what the licence does not cover. It is not first-line: modern anti-sickness regimens using 5-HT3 antagonists, dexamethasone and NK1 antagonists control chemotherapy nausea well for most people, and nabilone comes in when they do not. And it says nothing about nausea from other causes.

Nausea and appetite loss related to other illnesses or their treatment are assessed by private specialists case by case, usually as part of a wider symptom picture, on much weaker evidence. Appetite stimulation in particular has been studied mainly in HIV-related wasting and advanced cancer, with results that have not established it as a standard treatment in the UK.

What the evidence actually shows

Chemotherapy-induced nausea has the second-best evidence base of the licensed uses, and even here the Cochrane conclusion is qualified rather than enthusiastic.

A Cochrane systematic review of cannabinoids for nausea and vomiting in adults with cancer receiving chemotherapy concluded that cannabinoids may be a useful option for people whose sickness responds poorly to commonly used anti-emetics — while noting that methodological limitations of the trials constrain the conclusions, that side effects were more common with cannabinoids, and that many of the trials predate the anti-emetics now in standard use. That last point matters: much of the evidence compares cannabinoids with older drugs that have since been superseded.

For appetite loss, the evidence is weaker again. Trials in cancer-related anorexia have generally failed to show meaningful benefit over placebo or over alternatives, and appetite stimulation is not an established UK indication. It is also worth separating two things that are often merged: feeling less nauseous and being genuinely hungrier are not the same, and a reduction in sickness can improve how much someone eats without the medicine acting on appetite directly. Where the underlying problem is a wasting syndrome rather than simple poor appetite, that distinction matters even more, and it is drawn out in our guide to cachexia.

What a specialist will want to see

There is no UK list of qualifying conditions, so nothing here entitles you to a prescription. A specialist works through your history and decides whether a monitored trial is justified for you. For nausea and appetite loss they will typically look at:

• What is causing the nausea, and whether it has been properly investigated
• If it is chemotherapy-related, whether your oncology team has optimised standard anti-emetics first
• Whether the licensed NHS route through your oncology team is open to you — usually the better option
• Your weight, nutrition and whether a dietitian has been involved
• Your other medicines, since many cause nausea and some interact
• Any current cannabis use, given that heavy regular use can itself cause cyclical vomiting

The general requirements — age, a documented diagnosis, the convention that two standard treatments have been tried, and access to your medical records — are covered in What are the requirements?

Risks and reasons a specialist may say no

Nabilone commonly causes drowsiness, dizziness, dry mouth and euphoria or dysphoria, and older people tolerate it less well. In cancer care, where people are often frail and on several medicines, that matters.

There is also a paradox worth knowing: regular heavy cannabis use can cause cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, cycles of severe nausea and vomiting relieved temporarily by hot showers, where the treatment is to stop cannabis rather than take more. Persistent unexplained nausea, vomiting or weight loss should be investigated rather than treated symptomatically — it can be the first sign of something that needs a diagnosis, not an anti-emetic.

How cannabinoids are thought to help with sickness

The anti-sickness effect is the best understood part of this picture. The body has an endocannabinoid system — receptors and signalling molecules found throughout the brain and gut — and some of those receptors sit in the parts of the brainstem that generate nausea and vomiting. Cannabinoids that act there can dampen that signalling, which is the rationale behind nabilone's licensed use.

THC-like activity is what drives this effect, which is why the licensed medicine is based on it rather than on CBD, and why the same activity brings the drowsiness and other effects described below. It is a genuinely different mechanism from the modern anti-emetics used first for chemotherapy sickness, which is part of why a cannabinoid can help some people when those drugs have not been enough. If you want the underlying biology, see the endocannabinoid system explained and THC and CBD explained.

What treatment involves in practice

For the licensed indication, nabilone is a capsule added on when standard anti-sickness medicines have not given enough control, and your oncology team leads that decision. Where an unlicensed product is considered privately for other situations, the approach is the cautious one used across this field: start low, go slow, and review.

The usual private formats are oils or capsules taken by mouth and dried flower for vaporising, though inhaled routes are often less suitable for someone who is very unwell. Your specialist chooses the format and dose with you, and there is no single dose that fits everyone — how a dose is set and adjusted is covered in how a dose is decided and adjusted, and the formats in how cannabis-based medicines are taken.

Follow-up checks whether the nausea has genuinely eased and whether side effects such as drowsiness or dizziness are tolerable, which weighs more heavily in people who are frail or on several medicines. Treatment that is not helping enough is stopped. How soon any effect appears is discussed in how long cannabis medicines take to work, and the common unwanted effects in side effects of cannabis-based medicines.

Questions worth asking

If you are weighing this up, a short list of questions helps you get a straight answer and keeps the focus on what will actually help.

• Has the cause of my nausea or appetite loss been properly investigated?
• If it is chemotherapy-related, have the standard anti-emetics been fully optimised first, and is the licensed NHS route open to me through my oncology team?
• Is the realistic goal to reduce sickness, to improve appetite, or both — and how likely is each?
• How would this interact with my other medicines, and who will keep an eye on that?
• How and when will we decide whether it is working, and when would we stop?

If you want to take this further

The useful next step is a proper assessment, not a better list. Gather your diagnosis, the treatments you have already tried and what happened with each, and your current medicines — that is what a specialist needs in order to give you a straight answer.

The consultation itself, and what happens after it, is set out in What is the process to get a medical cannabis prescription? If nausea and appetite loss is not the only thing you are being treated for, say so early: other conditions and other medicines change the assessment.

Patient guide · Written by the Flora House editorial team · Last reviewed: 7 October 2026