Pain Better cannabis capsules than smoking

In pain therapy cannabis preparations are more effective than so-called joints

04/23/2013

After numerous studies have proven the positive effects of cannabis drugs in the fight against pain, scientists from Columbia University in New York have now addressed the question of which way the intake should take in order to achieve the greatest possible pain relief. Smoking joints therefore has a less sustainable effect than oral cannabis capsules.

The researchers compared the effect of oral ingestion of cannabis drugs with the effect of smoked joints in one „randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind study“, to make a statement about the best possible use in pain therapy. They allowed 30 subjects (15 women, 15 men), who used cannabis daily in the form of joints, to take regularly varying doses of dronabinol or a placebo for a period of two weeks. Accompanying the subjects continued to smoke joints, but cannabis was used with three different THC concentrations (zero percent, 1.98 percent or 3.56 percent). Cannabis with zero percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is a placebo. The results of the study, the scientists in the journal „Neuropsychopharmacology“ released.

Prolonged effect of the painkiller
The effect of the joints and the orally taken dronabinol on the pain perception of the subjects, the researchers checked by the hands of the subjects dipped in four degrees Celsius cold water. The subjects should indicate from when they feel a pain (sensitivity to pain), and their hand only from the water when it was too uncomfortable (pain tolerance). „Cannabis and dronabinol cause reduced pain sensitivity, increased pain tolerance, and decreased subjective pain severity rating compared to placebo“, write the US researchers. Although no change in the peak values ​​of sensitivity to pain and tolerance revealed a difference between dronabinol and the smoking of joints, the effect of dronabinol lasted longer. However, it can be assumed that the oral intake of cannabis in general (for example in the form of biscuits), has a much longer effect than the smoking of joints.

The drug Dronabinol is used in many countries to treat cancer patients for pain, dizziness and nausea and vomiting. HIV patients with the immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS often receive the drug to reduce muscle spasms and to counteract the loss of appetite.

Study data not yet conclusively verifiable
The submitted study data are „only conditionally meaningful, since all subjects had previously consumed cannabis“, as the researchers write in their report. Therefore, it was unclear whether the results would be similar if the trial were conducted with non-cannabis smokers. Nevertheless, physicians who have studied the therapeutic properties of cannabis for a long time do not recommend the active ingredient „Inhale joint“, but to take for example in the form of capsules. Finally, the smoke harms the organism, as it contains a variety of carcinogenic substances. In addition, the drug contained in THC, which causes intoxication, can be isolated. This is particularly important in patients who have neurological complaints such as dizziness or headache. (fp, sb)

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Image: Petra Bork