Canntab Medical Cannabis and Pain

A Canadian survey done on people suffering from chronic, non-cancer pain found that cannabis might well be effective at pain management. Another survey found that out of 3,000 participants, 97% of patients reported a decrease in their use of opioid medication. Some have reported that medical cannabis has the same pain-relieving capabilities as prescription medication.

Medical cannabis is most commonly used to control pain. It has worked for chronic pain suffers from ailments like osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. It might even prove to be useful in acute pain scenarios, such as postoperatively. Most of its appeal is that it is clearly safer than opiates (it is impossible to fatally overdose on and far less addictive) and it can take the place of NSAIDs such as Advil or Aleve if people can’t take them due to problems with their kidneys or ulcers or  GERD.

In particular, medical cannabis appears to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, and nerve pain in general. This is an area where few other options exist, and those that do, such as Gabapentin, Pregabalin, or opiates are highly sedating. Patients claim that medical cannabis allows them to resume their previous activities without them feeling spacey or withdrawn.

Along these lines, medical cannabis has been successfully used for fibromyalgia, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis and most other conditions where the final common pathway is chronic pain.

In addition, as per the table below, the Canadian Pain Society’s recommendation for chronic neuropathic pain has cannabis as third line medication.