Cannabis With Low THC Component Effective For Nerve Pain

Today's post from hcplive.com (see link below) discusses an interesting cannabis study directed at people living with significant neuropathic pain. The conclusions are: that compared with the placebo and after taking into account the psychoactive effects of vaporised cannabis, trial participants experienced a marked reduction in pain and that from a relatively low THC dosage. That's nothing new you might think; we've accepted that cannabis is an effective analgesic a long time ago but it is rare to see trials specifically for neuropathy patients and for that reason, it's worth publishing on this blog. The more concrete evidence, the better!

Medical Marijuana: Low THC Sufficient for Neuropathic Pain
Aug 29, 2016 | Caitlyn Fitzpatrick

Study results on the analgesic effect of cannabis have been mixed over the years. However, many states allow prescriptions for medical marijuana for a variety of health conditions, including pain. A recent study published in The Journal of Pain looked at the effect of marijuana treatment on neuropathic pain.

A team of researchers based in California conducted eight-hour human analyses to determine pain level outcomes with the use of vaporized cannabis. The cohort included 42 patients with neuropathic pain related to an injury or disease of the spinal cord. Although most of the participants were also on a traditional treatment, they were still experiencing pain.

The patients were randomized to take four puffs of vaporized cannabis that contained either placebo, 2.9%, or 6.7% delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Three hours later, the participants took another four to eight puffs – the number of puffs was decided by the patient in order to reduce the placebo effect.
  
An 11-point numerical pain intensity rating scale showed that the vaporized cannabis produced a significant analgesic response.

“When subjective and psychoactive side effects (eg, good drug effect, feeling high, etc) were added as covariates to the model, the reduction in pain intensity remained significant above and beyond any effect of these measures,” the report said.

Psychoactive side effects did occur as a result of the delta 9-THC, which is expected as marijuana is a brain-altering drug. The researchers said that neuropsychological performance was challenging to measure because many of the participants had disabilities.

Nevertheless, two of the highlighted findings included:

There was significantly more pain relief with active cannabis than placebo.
The two active doses did not have significantly different outcomes when it came to analgesic potency.

Since the higher active dose didn’t appear to provide more pain relief, the authors advise that patients with neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury or disease should be provided with the lower dose in order to avoid potential risks.

http://www.hcplive.com/medical-news/medical-marijuana-low-thc-sufficient-for-neuropathic-pain

Snail Saliva As Effective as Morphine for Neuropathy

Following on from recent posts looking at unusual potential sources of pain relief, today's post from emaxhealth.com (see link below) examines the promising properties of a sort of sea snail saliva. It could possible rival morphine in its pain-killing properties and anything that could be a non-addictive substitute for morphine must be welcome in the neuropathy community. Don't expect it to appear soon on the list of approved drugs. They've managed to develop a synthetic version but that has to be injected into the spine and nobody's waiting for that sort of treatment. Still a long way to go then but it's great that people are seriously searching the natural world for alternatives to morphine.

Snail Saliva As Effective as Morphine?
By Deborah Mitchell on July 28, 2010

To treat severe pain, a sea snail may hold an answer. Scientists have developed a new medication first isolated from sea snail saliva that may be as effective as morphine.

Sea snails may not move fast, but what they lack in speed, they more than make up for in chemicals. These animals have the ability to inject a mixture of toxins called conotoxins into their targeted prey using their needle-like teeth.

These conotoxins consist of peptides that can relieve severe neuropathic pain as effectively as morphine, but it does not lead to addiction. Attempts to transform these conotoxins into a drug that could be used as a pain reliever has been challenging. Thus far a synthetic version has been developed, but it must be injected directly into the spinal cord using an implanted pump.

Now, a team of scientists in Australia have developed a conotoxin that can be taken orally. In tests with rats, the new drug proved to be as effective a pain killer as gabapentin, which is the most popular drug to treat neuropathic pain. Compared with the dose of gabapentin needed to treat pain, however, the conotoxin-based peptide (named Prialt) is less than 1 percent.

The research team, led by David J. Craik of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, noted that peptides have generally been regarded to be poor pain killers because they are not stable and mostly not available in oral form. One exception has been the immunosuppressant cyclosporine.

Could a drug based on sea snail saliva be next? Jon-Paul Bignham, a professor of molecular biosciences and bioengineering at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, pointed out that an oral drug that has the pain killer abilities of Prialt “would absolutely revolutionize how we manage chronic and terminal pain.” Move over, morphine.

SOURCE:
Chemical & Engineering News 2010 July 26; 88(30): 39-40

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/snail-saliva-effective-morphine