This can be especially useful for hard-to-treat neuropathic pain or centralized pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia. THC is responsible for that “high” people get from marijuana, which can also play a role in pain relief. CBD doesn't usually cause an intoxicating sensation, but research suggests that it may also help relieve arthritis symptoms. For example, in a recent survey of more than 100 regular marijuana users with multiple sclerosis, almost all participants reported that marijuana helped relieve spasticity and pain in the extremities (see chapter II).
If you're interested in trying CBD or THC for pain management, talk to your doctor and do experiments to see if CBD or THC (or both) relieves some pain. In contrast, some clinical studies have not only failed to prove that THC relieves pain, but they have also found that the drug has the opposite effect. Bryan says he believes a combination of THC and CBD together holds the most promise for pain relief. Researchers understand CBD much less than THC, although there is anecdotal evidence that it can relieve pain in some people.
For this reason, researchers hope to discover pain relievers that work in the body in a different way than opioids do. But due to the ethical and logistical difficulties of conducting pain experiments on human volunteers, marijuana's potential for pain relief has not yet been conclusively confirmed in the clinic. On average, participants found that the THC analog relieved mild, moderate and severe pain, as well as codeine, and better than secobarbital. This THC analog had previously been shown to block pain in animals, and its ability to relieve moderate to severe pain in cancer patients was being tested.
However, after critically reviewing existing research on THC and pain relief, the IOM team concluded that cannabinoids can provide mild or moderate pain relief, on a par with codeine. Most importantly, scientists were once again unable to prove whether another pain reliever, instead of a sedative, would have performed better than THC in the test. Interestingly, during this study none of the patients experienced nausea or vomiting and more than half reported that their appetite increased, suggesting that oral THC acted as an antiemetic and appetite stimulant, as well as an analgesic. The authors also noted that some patients who seemed calmer after taking THC reported that it had not relieved their pain; other patients said that, although their pain remained the same, it bothered them less.
They found that 10 milligrams of THC provided the same pain relief as a 60 milligram (moderately strong) dose of codeine and that 20 milligrams of THC worked as well as 120 milligrams of codeine. Most evaluated the ability of cannabinoids to relieve chronic pain in people with cancer or acute pain after surgery or injury.
