If you suffer from chronic pain you may know how difficult it is to find a pain management treatment plan that works long term without adverse effects. Rising popularity of non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD introduces a new avenue for the treatment of intractable chronic pain which treatments are insufficient or not possible.
Clinical evidence shows that CBD has therapeutic benefit in certain forms of epilepsy and analgesic effects to help with pain and improve quality of life. Chronic pain affects over 50 million people in the USA alone and finding effective ways for chronic pain management has proven to be difficult especially with the opiate epidemic.
A study involving a mixed group of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, brachial plexus injury and limb amputation showed significant reduction in pain when given CBD treatment. CBD has also been effective with kidney transplant patients and when given topically to patients suffering from peripheral neuropathy of lower extremities.
Patients suffering from fibromyalgia also saw decreased pain by more than 30%. CBD treatment helped patients with generalized chronic pain by consistently improving quality of life and sleep. Patients reported reduced pain, improved sleep quality, and reduced insomnia and fatigue.
Clinical studies have demonstrated that CBD was effective for pain reduction and mitigating neuropathic pain as well as improve quality of life in patients suffering from several diseases, e.g. multiple sclerosis, cancer, or rheumatoid arthritis.
Currently, science based articles center around CBD/THC combination treatments and more studies must be done to further understand the efficacy of CBD in chronic pain management.
Source:
Argueta, D. A., Ventura, C. M., Kiven, S., Sagi, V., & Gupta, K. (2020). A Balanced Approach for Cannabidiol Use in Chronic Pain. Frontiers in pharmacology, 11, 561. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00561
Boyaji, S., Merkow, J., Elman, R., Kaye, A. D., Yong, R. J., & Urman, R. D. (2020). The Role of Cannabidiol (CBD) in Chronic Pain Management: An Assessment of Current Evidence. Current pain and headache reports, 24(2), 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-020-0835-4
Mlost, J., Bryk, M., & Starowicz, K. (2020). Cannabidiol for Pain Treatment: Focus on Pharmacology and Mechanism of Action. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(22), 8870. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21228870