According to a recent study, medical marijuana can safely lessen cancer pain and is supposedly so effective that patients end up using fewer opioids and other painkillers as a result.
What the Study Suggests?
Dr. Antonio Vigano, a senior researcher and an associate professor of oncology and medicine at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, reported that marijuana significantly decreased the worst pain, average pain, and overall pain severity experienced by cancer patients.
“Medical cannabis can be introduced safely into the care of cancer patients and can really lead to a decrease in different parameters by which we measure cancer-related pain,” Vigano added. “These reductions in those measures can be stable and last up to one year of follow-up.”
The study found that patients’ use of opioids and other painkillers decreased by up to 32% when cannabis was added to their pain management plan. We might observe a decrease in overall pharmaceutical utilization as a result of marijuana use, Vigano suggested. Antidepressants, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs), anti-convulsants, and opioids were all reduced.
According to researchers’ background notes, up until now, medical cannabis has primarily been utilized to alleviate chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting. For that purpose, dronabinol and nabilone, two medications derived from marijuana, have received approval.
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Some other Statistics
Vigano and his associates tracked 358 cancer-stricken persons for this study for a maximum of a year, whose treatment information was provided to the Quebec Cannabis Registry. The average age of the patients was 57, and breast, colon, and genital cancers were the most frequently identified cancers. According to experts, the most common ailment cited as the reason for a medical cannabis prescription (72% of cases) was pain.
According to Vigano, the majority of patients (57%) consumed their medicinal cannabis orally as oils or pills. 13% of users smoked or inhaled their marijuana, and 25% mixed one or more delivery methods. Moreover, the patients’ worst pain at the start of the trial was about 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Patients who used marijuana had a 43% reduction in the amount that cancer pain interfered with their daily lives and a 35% reduction in their worst pain levels at nine months.
Also Read: New Approaches to Operative Medicine in Cancer Treatment
