Tel Aviv, Israel: Patients experience reductions in chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CIPN) following the sustained daily use of medical cannabis products, according to data published in the journal Biomedicines.
Israeli investigators assessed outcomes in 751 patients with CIPN. Study participants consumed prescribed medical cannabis products (either herbal cannabis or oral extracts), dominant in either THC or CBD. (Approximately 150,000 Israeli patients receive prescription cannabis from the Ministry of Health.) Patients consumed cannabis daily for six months.
Researchers reported that patients in both cannabis treatment groups experienced significant symptomatic improvements, with those consuming higher doses of THC-dominant products reporting the greatest degree of improvement.
“The significant improvement in CIPN symptoms, ADL (activities in daily living), and QOL (quality of life), particularly in the THC-high cluster, supports the clinical use of medical cannabis as a complementary therapeutic option for patients with chemotherapy-induced neuropathy who experience limited relief from standard therapies,” the study’s authors concluded. “Moreover, the observed improvement in functionality (ADL) underscores the potential of cannabis to improve daily living and overall patient well-being, aspects often overlooked in traditional CIPN management.”
Numerous other studies have similarly reported that cannabis use provides sustained improvements in patients suffering from neuropathy.
Data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that nearly one in three patients with chronic pain use cannabis as an analgesic agent and that many of them substitute it in place of opioids.
Full text of the study, “Comparative effects of THC and CBD on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: Insights from a large real-world self-reported dataset,” appears in Biomedicines. Additional information on cannabis and chronic pain is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids.