Post: Cannabis Is More Effective In Treating Musculoskeletal Pain Than Traditional Medications Are, Patients Say In New Study

More than 1 in 5 patients who go to orthopedic surgeons with chronic musculoskeletal pain are using or have used some form of cannabis to manage their pain, according to a new study published this month. Of those, almost two thirds said they felt cannabis was very or somewhat effective, while more than 9 in 10 said it was at least slightly effective.

“More than half (57%) claimed cannabis to be more effective than other analgesic medications, and 40% reported decreasing their use of other analgesic medications since starting cannabis use,” the research found, adding that only 26 percent reported a doctor recommended cannabinoids to them to treat their musculoskeletal (MSK) pain.

Notably, among those who said they used cannabis to manage pain, the most commonly used cannabinoid was CBD (39 percent), followed by a hybrid of multiple cannabinoids (20 percent). Almost a quarter (23 percent) said they were unaware of their cannabis’s composition.

Further, among patients who were not cannabis users, roughly two thirds (65 percent) said they were interested in using marijuana to manage their pain but reported barriers to use such as “lack of knowledge regarding access, use and evidence, and stigma,” although stigma was, contrary to previous research, not a primary concern. “One in five patients presenting to an orthopaedic surgeon with chronic MSK pain are using or have used cannabis with the specific intent to manage their pain, and most report it to be effective.” The paper, published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, didn’t seek to definitively determine whether marijuana effectively managed MSK pain symptoms—future double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are required to do that, it says—but instead intended to examine use and self-reported efficacy as well as potential obstacles to use among patients who are non-users.

The study was co-authored by six researchers from University Health Network, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. The 629 participants were adults 18 and older with chronic MSK pain “who were visiting the Orthopaedic Clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network for a first-time consultation with an orthopaedic surgeon.”

Of the 23 percent of patients who said they had ever used […]

Cannabis Is More Effective In Treating Musculoskeletal Pain Than Traditional Medications Are, Patients Say In New Study