Thursday, January 29, 2009

Medical Marijuana Research Helps In Neuropathic Pain

By Dr. Julian Reindhurst

Recent studies done by scientist has shown medical marijuana can alleviate a condition called chronic pain syndrome which is a burning sensation that occurs when a slight touch of something can feel like a wound.

chronic pain syndrome has been shown to be unaffected by drugs like aspirin and very resistant to stronger analgesics such as opiates.

In a 2007 case study on neuropathic pain was done on patients that had HIV related infections; they had 50 patients smoke marijuana cigarettes 3 times a day or a medical marijuana cigarettes from which active ingredients had been extracted.

The studies were then instructed to rate their pain on a scale ranging from no pain to worst pain imaginable.

The results showed a 34% reduction in ratings of pain in the medical marijuana group compared with 17% in the placebo group over five days of treatment as was published in the journal Neurology.

Another study in 44 patients reported that they found medical marijuana helped reduce neuropathic pain arising from a variety of conditions, including spinalcord injury and diabetes and was published in in June in the Journal of Pain.

The case study was conducted in the following manner -- the medical marijuana group was first instructed two puffs, then three puffs an hour later, then four puffs an hour after that -- from a single cigarette containing either 0%, 3.5%, or 7% THC.

Prior to smoking medical marijuana, the average pain rating was a 55 on a 100-point scale and decreased by 46% in both treatment groups and by 27% in the placebo group one hour after the last inhale.

It is quite normal for analgesic drugs are often tested against experimentally induced pain. Such studies have been conducted for medical marijuana too.

One such example is when 15 healthy volunteers received skin injections with capsaicin which was done in 2007 and published in the journal Anesthesiology.

capsaicin is the compound behind that fiery spice in chile peppers; and then the participants smoked different strength medical marijuana cigarettes.

The medium dose, with a 4% THC concentration, lessened the burning pain.

The research concluded that smoking marijuana can bring relief to sufferers of neuropathic pain comparable to other analgesic drugs.

It's not a cure, It's like other pain medicines, you have to keep taking it to continue to get the positive effects.

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