Medical cannabis for chronic pain: Global task force develops new protocols and guidelines

By Javier Hasse

Chronic pain affects almost two billion people worldwide. The use of medical cannabis to relieve the symptoms of chronic pain is increasing rapidly, supported not only by legalization, but also by positive study results, improved quality of life, everyday functioning and opioid savings.

However, there is limited scientific data to guide the dosage and administration of cannabis-based drugs.

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To help doctors meet their patients’ needs, Canopy Growth recruited a group of 20 doctors who used a modified Delphi process to develop three practical protocols for the oral administration of medicinal cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain.

These recommendations will help fill a knowledge gap and assist clinicians and patients in achieving safe and effective dosing.

It was concluded that patients with neuropathic, inflammatory, nociplastic, and mixed pain could be considered and likely would benefit most from medical cannabis treatment through three treatment protocols described in the publication.

In addition, the global task force concluded that when treating a patient with chronic pain, the dosage should be customized for each patient based on their goals, side effect profile, drug interactions, and affordability.

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Dr. Alan Bell, family doctor and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, is a senior expert on the task force.

“As a task force, we believe it is incredibly important to provide medical cannabis to patients who want to treat chronic pain. “These dosage recommendations and guidelines will act as the backbone of treatment regimens and enable clinicians to propose medicinal cannabis as a consistently safer alternative to opioids.”

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Dr. Mark Ware, Canopy Growth’s chief medical officer added, “We know that 20-25% of the population in developed countries and nearly two billion worldwide are affected by chronic pain.”

In his view, so far we have seen limited clinical data to aid in the dosing and administration of cannabis medicines. Because of this, Canopy has “developed research-based recommendations on how to safely dose and administer medical cannabis to patients,” said Ware. “Dosing for patients with chronic pain should be individualized based on side effects, drug interactions, and affordability, but this is a great dosing resource for doctors whose patients are asking about medical cannabis as a treatment.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.