Hannover, Germany: Administration of the CT-3 cannabinoid significantly reduces chronic pain in humans compared to placebo, according to the results of clinical trial data published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The results of the study indicate that “CT-3 may be an effective analgesic for poorly controlled resistant neuropathic pain,” researchers at the Hannover Medical School in Germany concluded. Neuropathic pain is often resistant to standard pain medications, including opioids.
Twenty-four patients with chronic neurpoathic pain in places such as the foot, arm, face and head participated in the randomized, placebo controlled trial. Volunteers were administered two daily doses of either CT-3, a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid that has previously demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties in animals, or placebo. Researchers found CT-3 to be more effective than placebo at diminishing pain, and noted “no major adverse side effects” of the drug.
Although anecdotal reports regarding marijuana’s pain-mitigating effects are abundant, few clinical human trails have been conducted. Nevertheless, after reviewing a series of animal trails on cannabinoids in pain in 1997, the US Society for Neuroscience concluded that “substances similar to or derived from marijuana … could benefit the more than 97 million Americans who experience some form of pain each year.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. Abstracts of the study, entitled “Analgesic effect of the synthetic cannabinoid CT-3 on chronic neuropathic pain: randomized controlled trial,” are available online at:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/290/13/1757