A new study confirms that medical marijuana can manage chronic pain and reduce the use of opioids



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Many recent studies have suggested that cannabis products are not only effective in relieving the types of chronic debilitating pain experienced by tens of millions of people worldwide, but that access to these drugs can also reduce the quantities of opioid drugs. people take. Given that opioid dependence – and overdose death – has reached epidemic prevalence, many in the scientific community view marijuana as a way out of the crisis.

But a major new survey published today in The Lancet contradicts previous research by noting that people with persistent, non-cancer pain and cannabis use had no improvement in pain or pain scores. stop opioids. four years.

The authors, led by Dr. Gabrielle Campbell of the National Research Center for Alcohol and Drugs at the University of New South Wales, recruited 1,514 opioid adults (including fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, buprenorphine, methadone and hydromorphone). for more than six weeks to treat pain for more than 3 months. Subjects were asked about various psychological and lifestyle factors, pain scores, self-efficacy of pain (which measures the perceived ability of people to perform activities during pain), and anxiety. Cannabis use at the beginning and at the end of the study. years (2012 to 2016). At each visit, the authors confirmed whether the subjects were still taking an opioid.

Fentanyl, the sadly addictive synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Curiously, their badysis revealed that people who used cannabis at any level of frequency reported higher scores for pain severity, greater pain efficiency, and greater interference with pain. that pain. those who do not use cannabis in the second, third and fourth years. Higher scores for generalized anxiety disorders were significantly higher among cannabis users at all study points.

Even after adjusting for multiple factors such as age, baseline pain and opioid dose, the authors found no badociation between the use of cannabis over the past year and reduced use of opioids the following year. They note that a greater proportion of those who never reported using cannabis stopped opioids at the end of the four years compared to those who did (21% vs. 9%). %), but this comparison must be made with a grain of salt. does not reach statistical significance.

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