← All causality assessments
Coding artifact: the indication reported back as the "reaction"
Causality assessment · Coding artifact: the indication reported back as the "reaction"
Tocilizumab and Rheumatoid Arthritis: is the FAERS signal real?
A written Bradford Hill assessment of one drug–event pair. The grade is a judgement about the signal, not a statement that this drug causes this event in any one person; FAERS counts are reports, not rates.
Tocilizumab ↔ Rheumatoid Arthritis
n=22,731 co-reports · PRR 46.4 · ROR 57.8
Cannabis (medical) is used for various indications. Drug abuse is the expected consequence of its THC-mediated CB1 receptor activation: euphoria, tolerance, and cannabis use disorder are well-documented. 3,569 co-reports (PRR 15.0) reflect both medical and recreational use. The label carries a boxed warning for abuse, dependence, and misuse.
Boxed warning: cannabis label (abuse/dependence/misuse). DEA scheduling (Schedule I).
| Bradford Hill viewpoint | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Temporality (necessary) | met | Documented in label |
| Strength | met | PRR 15.0 with 3,569 co-reports |
| Consistency | met | Reproduced across CB1 agonists |
| Specificity | partial | Specific to cannabinoid receptor activation |
| Biological gradient | met | Tolerance documented |
| Plausibility | met | Known CB1 mechanism |
| Coherence | met | Cannabis withdrawal recognised |
| Experiment | n/a | Not an RCT endpoint |
| Analogy | met | Other cannabinoids class-wide |
This table is this page's own qualitative read of the literature cited above, not an automated or citation-gated assessment — see the note at the bottom of this page.
✗ No ClinicalTrials.gov results-posting trial in the top search hits for Tocilizumab captured rheumatoid arthritis as a tracked adverse event in a usable structure. Medical cannabis trials are short-term; abuse liability assessed in epidemiological studies.