Boulder, CO: Patients with chronic lower back pain report less pain intensity on days when they consume THC-infused edible products, according to observational data published in the journal Biomedicines.
Investigators affiliated with the University of Colorado at Boulder assessed the efficacy of state-licensed adult-use edible cannabis products on pain intensity in 243 participants with chronic lower back pain.
Researchers reported that participants experienced less pain on days they consumed THC-infused products as compared to days when they did not. Participants who consumed edible products dominant in CBD, but not THC, did not report similar improvements.
“Daily data collected over 14 days of naturalistic cannabis use demonstrated that reductions in participants’ current pain intensity were associated with the use of cannabis edible products, but only in products that contained THC. More frequent use of these products in the previous 24 hours was associated with improved reductions in pain intensity,” the study’s authors concluded. “Statistically, the use of CBD-dominant products was not associated with any reductions in pain intensity at the daily or longitudinal levels, and these associations did not change regardless of how often participants used their products. Future research should assess these associations in larger samples to optimize THC and CBD doses and ratios to maximize both daily and longitudinal reductions in the pain associated with chronic low back pain.”
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 many of those who do substitute it in place of opioids.
Full text of the study, “Lower pain intensity is associated with the use of recreational edible cannabis products containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabionol; A secondary analysis of adults self-managing their chronic low back pain,” appears in Biomedicines. Additional information on cannabinoids and chronic pain is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids.