Episode 479: Cannabinoids – an update (not much) for chronic pain

In episode 479, Mike and James update the latest information around cannabinoids for chronic pain. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of new information but we talk about what there is and then try and put all the evidence into context and then how to think about the information we have.

Show notes

1) Allan GM, Finley CR, Ton J, Perry D, Ramji J, Crawford K, et al. Systematic review of systematic reviews for medical cannabinoids: Pain, nausea and vomiting, spasticity, and harms.

Can Fam Physician. 2018;64(2):e78-e94.

2) Mücke M, Phillips T, Radbruch L, Petzke F, Häuser W. Cannabis-based medicines for chronic neuropathic pain in adults.

Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018 Mar 7;3(3):CD012182.

3) Wong SSC, Chan WS, Cheung CW.  Analgesic Effects of Cannabinoids for Chronic Non-cancer Pain: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Meta-Regression.

J Neuroimmune Pharmacol. 2020 Dec;15(4):801-829

4) Johal H, Devji T, Chang Y, Simone J, Vannabouathong C, Bhandari M.  Cannabinoids in Chronic Non-Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord. 2020 Feb 19;13:1179544120906461.

5) Fitzcharles MA, Baerwald C, Ablin J, Häuser W. Efficacy, tolerability and safety of cannabinoids in chronic pain associated with rheumatic diseases (fibromyalgia syndrome, back pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis): a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Schmerz. 2016;30(1):47–61.