Could marijuana be an effective pain alternative to prescription medications?
July 1, 2019
Science Daily/Taylor & Francis Group
A new study has shown how cannabis could be an effective treatment option for both pain relief and insomnia, for those looking to avoid prescription and over the counter pain and sleep medications -- including opioids.
The study, published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, which looked at 1,000 people taking legalized marijuana in an American state found that among the 65% of people taking cannabis for pain, 80% found it was very or extremely helpful.
This led to 82% of these people being able to reduce, or stop taking over the counter pain medications, and 88% being able to stop taking opioid painkillers.
74% of the 1,000 interviewees bought it to help them sleep -- 84% of whom said the marijuana had helped them, and over 83% said that they had since reduced or stopped taking over-the-counter or prescription sleep aids.
The study suggests that cannabis could lower opioid use. However, the researchers caution that more needs to be done to understand the potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis.
"Approximately 20% of American adults suffer from chronic pain, and one in three adults do not get enough sleep," says Dr Gwen Wurm, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Traditional over the counter medications and painkillers can help, however they may have serious side effects. Opioids depress the respiratory system, meaning that overdoses may be fatal.
"People develop tolerance to opioids, which means that they require higher doses to achieve the same effect," says Dr. Julia Arnsten, Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "This means that chronic pain patients often increase their dose of opioid medications over time, which in turn increases their risk of overdose."
Although less common, sleeping pills can lead to dependence, and can also cause grogginess the next day, interfering with people's work and social lives.
As a consequence, some people are looking to marijuana to help with their symptoms.
To find out more about these users, Wurm and her colleagues used survey data from people who purchased cannabis from two retail stores in Colorado, US, where it is legal for both medical and recreational use -- meaning any adult over 21 with a valid government ID may purchase product.
"In states where adult use of cannabis is legal, our research suggests that many individuals bypass the medical cannabis route (which requires registering with the state) and are instead opting for the privacy of a legal adult use dispensary," says Wurm.
Although the survey was conducted among customers willing to participate -- meaning the results may not reflect the overall population of dispensary customers -- other national survey data, and data from medical patients at medical cannabis dispensaries, also demonstrate that people who use cannabis to treat symptoms both decrease and stop their use of prescription medications.
The study adds weight to the theory that widening access to medical cannabis could lower the use of prescription painkillers, allowing more people to manage and treat their pain without relying on opioid prescription drugs that have dangerous side effects.
This is backed up with other research that shows that states with medical cannabis laws have a 6.38% lower rate of opioid prescribing, and that Colorado's adult-use cannabis law is associated with a relative reduction in opioid overdose death rate from 1999 to 2010.
Wurm adds: "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen cause GI bleeding or kidney damage with chronic use. Paracetemol (Acetaminophen) toxicity is the second most common cause of liver transplantation worldwide, and is responsible for 56,000 ER visits, 2600 hospitalizations, and 500 deaths per year in the U.S."
However, the researchers caution that more research is needed to understand the health benefits and side effects of cannabis.
"The challenge is that health providers are far behind in knowing which cannabis products work and which do not. Until there is more research into which cannabis products work for which symptoms, patients will do their own "trial and error," experiments, getting advice from friends, social media and dispensary employees," says Wurm.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190701224523.htm
How the brain suppresses pain during times of stress
March 6, 2013
Science Daily/National University of Ireland, Galway
New findings about how the brain functions to suppress pain have been published in the leading journal in the field Pain, by National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) researchers. For the first time, it has been shown that suppression of pain during times of fear involves complex interplay between marijuana-like chemicals and other neurotransmitters in a brain region called the amygdala.
The work was carried out by Dr David Finn and his research team in Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Centre for Pain Research and Galway Neuroscience Centre at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, NUI Galway. The research builds on previous breakthrough findings from Dr Finn's research group on the role of marijuana-like chemicals in the brain's hippocampus in pain suppression during fear.
Pain is both a sensory and an emotional experience and is subject to modulation by a number of factors including fear and stress. During exposure to a high-stress environment or stimulus, pain transmission and perception can be potently suppressed. This important survival response can help us cope with or escape from potentially life-threatening situations. One brain region that is integral to the processing and expression of both emotional responses and pain is the amygdala.
Working with Dr Finn, first author Dr Kieran Rea was able to confirm the amygdala as a key brain region in the suppression of pain behaviour by fear (so-called fear-induced analgesia). Fear-induced analgesia was associated with increases in levels of marijuana-like substances known as endocannabinoids in the amygdala.
Furthermore, fear-induced analgesia was prevented by injecting a drug that blocked the receptor at which these endocannabinoids act into the amygdala. Further experimentation revealed that these effects involved an interaction between endocannabinoids and the classical neurotransmitters GABA (Gamma-amino butyric acid) and glutamate. An increased understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in fear-induced analgesia is important from a fundamental physiological perspective and may also advance the search for new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of pain.
Dr David Finn, Leader of the Galway Neuroscience Centre, Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway and study leader says: "The body can suppress pain when under extreme stress, in part through the action of marijuana-like substances produced in the brain. This research provides information on the complex interactions between multiple neurotransmitter systems including endocannabinoids, GABA and glutamate in times of stress and pain. This research which was funded by a grant from Science Foundation Ireland, advances our fundamental understanding of the neurobiology of pain and may facilitate the identification of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of pain and anxiety disorders."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130306134014.htm