San Diego, CA: Chronic pain patients who consume CBD products report reducing their use of prescription medications, specifically opioids, according to data published in the Journal of Pain Research.
Researchers with the University of California and the University of Washington surveyed 253 participants from seven pain management clinics in southern California. Participants in the study suffered from back pain, nerve pain, migraine, fibromyalgia, and other pain conditions.
Sixty-two percent of participants reported using CBD products, with over one-half of participants (91 percent) acknowledging that these products also contained THC. Subjects were most likely to inhale/smoke cannabis products, although just over half of respondents also reported using edibles and tinctures.
Twenty percent of subjects who consumed cannabis products reported experiencing “complete” relief from their pain. Thirty-nine percent of participants said that they helped “a lot.” Most subjects reported that their use of CBD-dominant products led them to reduce their use of prescription pain medicines, specifically opioids – a finding that is consistent with other studies.
Authors concluded: “Overall, our study describes the attitudes and experiences of the participants with CBM [cannabis-based medicines] and CBD-containing products (medical cannabis) in a pain management clinic environment with a large Medicare and Medicaid patient population. … The majority responded that these products have helped their pain (59 percent) and allowed them to reduce their pain medications (68 percent), including opioids (54 percent). … Taken together, participants report some perceived beneficial effects using CBM [cannabis-based medicines] and CBD products including the reduction of pain medication.”
The results of a prior human study, published in 2019, similarly reported that the oral administration of CBD-dominant extracts over an eight-week trial period reduced subjects’ chronic pain and use of opioids while also improving their overall quality of life.
Cannabinoid as a treatment for chronic pain: A survey of patients’ perspectives and attitudes,” appears in the Journal of Pain Research. Additional information regarding cannabis/prescription drug substitution is available from NORML.