‘This is what we’ve been waiting for,’ says Canadian pain specialist
An experimental cannabis extract reduced low back pain in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in Europe, and Canadian doctors say it’s the type of well-designed study they’ll need to guide patients seeking safer medication options.
In Monday’s issue of the journal Nature Medicine, a clinical trial of 820 adults with chronic low back pain showed a cannabis extract in sesame oil called VER-01 offered more relief of pain intensity compared to those who received a placebo.
Low back pain is a common ailment, often stemming from muscle injuries resulting from lifting and twisting. When the pain lasts for more than three months, doctors consider it chronic.
Chronic back pain is treated with a combination of education, medication and rehabilitation like physiotherapy exercises, pain clinicians say.
Need for new pain relievers
Doctors say it’s important to look for new pain relievers for chronic pain.
That’s because long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs, like ibuprofen in Advil, can have side effects such as ulcers, bleeding and an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes.
As well, doctors overprescribing opioids such as OxyContin for chronic pain helped spark the opioid crisis, which led to an overwhelming number of addiction cases and deaths in North America.
Today, Canadian physicians don’t readily prescribe opioids for chronic, non-cancer pain, said Dr. Hance Clarke, the director of pain services at Toronto General Hospital who also heads the Canadian Pain Society.
A safe, non-inhalational form of cannabis could be a helpful alternative for Canadians suffering from chronic pain, Clarke said, adding the field needs evidence from trials like this to move forward.
“When I read the paper, I said, ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for,’ ” he said.
Read the full article at CBC News
