Chronic pain patients experience sustained symptomatic improvements following the use of low-dose, plant-derived cannabis extracts, according to data published in the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy.
Argentinian investigators assessed the adjunctive use of cannabis extracts in a cohort of 88 patients diagnosed with either musculoskeletal, neuropathic, or oncological pain. Extracts contained no more than 5 ng/ml THC and 2 ng/ml CBD. Study participants consumed extracts sublingually for six months.
Sixty-five percent of patients experienced pain reductions of greater than 50 percent following cannabis treatment. Additionally, most participants reported improved sleep and a decrease in anxiety. Twenty-six percent of patients reduced their use of traditional analgesic medications – a finding consistent with other studies.
Most patients reported either mild or no adverse side effects. None of the study’s participants experienced psychoactive effects following cannabis dosing.
“We observed an important decrease in pain between the first and last consultation, at relatively low doses (~ 4 mg/day for THC and ~ 2 mg/day CBD),” researchers reported. “Similar trends were found for all life quality-associated parameters studied, except appetite, and side effects were mild, implying that significant pain reduction can be effectively and consistently obtained from herbal full-spectrum preparations.”
The study’s authors concluded: “No participants increased or added analgesic or anti-inflammatory drugs during the study. … Cannabis herbal preparations for the treatment of chronic pain may not only benefit patients from a safe and effective therapeutic option, but health care systems could increase sustainability and reduce hospitalization due to adverse effects.”
Full text of the study, “Effectiveness of full spectrum cannabis extracts in the treatment of chronic pain: An open label study,” appears in the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy. Additional information on cannabis and pain management is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.