Researchers have shown in a number of past studies that cannabis can be used to help treat or manage a person’s pain. This is especially the case when it was myofascial pain caused by ailments such as Parkinson’s disease. Researchers recently decided to focus on increasing the knowledge of medical cannabis patients. The study focused on consolidating the information on how others use cannabis to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain. It was the hope of the researchers to alter patients’ perceptions about the treatment, focusing on chronic pain not caused by cancer.

Study

The researchers gathered information from databases and websites, using specified keyword searches. They specifically focused on studies that reported on how patients viewed using medical cannabis to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain. The researchers clarified that the examined studies had to specifically describe aspects of medical cannabis use to treat any non-cancer pain. One example was any study that used questionnaires to find their results. Also, the researchers looked at any study examining medical cannabis use on any non-cancer pain. This is because studies that looked exclusively at treating chronic musculoskeletal pain were very rare.

The researchers looked at what the examined studies entailed and what their limitations were. Then, they looked at patients’ demographic characteristics (race, gender, age, etc.), patterns of cannabis use, perceived positive and negative effects, use of alcohol or other drugs, and any reported barriers to cannabis use. The researchers also looked at the sources where the examined studies received their funding.

Results

In all of the 49 included studies, researchers found that participants reported using medical cannabis in order to help them reduce some kind of chronic non-cancer pain. The participants reported minor, if any, adverse effects with some even reporting improved psychological health.

The researchers also found that the mean age of the participants varied between 28.4 and 62.8 years old. They also found that the participants most commonly administered cannabis through inhalation.

The study’s overall results showed that the participants saw more benefits than drawbacks to using cannabis for this purpose.

Discussion

This study showed that there was evidence of patients using medical cannabis to treat chronic non-cancer pain. It also showed that they received benefits for the most part. However, there were limitations both in the examined studies and this current study. This study’s main limitation was how broad its data net was. To fully understand the benefits of using cannabis, researchers would need to be more focused on a specific topic in order to definitively show the benefits.

Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.