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ef f icacy for pain. Most of these studies include only a few
dozen par ticipant s, but some do include a few hundred.
More than half f ind statistically signif icant benef it s of can-
nabis for reducing chronic pain.
Alternatively, we can summarize finding by type of pain.
Several studies have been conducted on cannabis for postop-
erative (that is, acute) pain. As mentioned earlier, these stud-
ies tend to find that cannabis is not effective for address-
ing acute pain. Next, several dozen studies test the efficacy
of cannabis for chronic nociceptive and neuropathic pain,
and many of these studies find cannabis effective for reduc-
ing chronic pain. Third, a dozen studies find cannabis to be an
effective substitute for opioids. The last area with a bit more
than a handful of studies is that of cannabis for helping pain
patients improve sleep, and these studies do find cannabis to
be effective for sleep.
This evidence does not constitute the good set of large-
scale, randomized, controlled trials that the medical commu-
nity generally turns to as validating a treatment's efficacy. Yet,
it does provide some assurance that cannabis seems quite
promising for addressing chronic pain.
In Sum
Chronic pain is one of the more heavily studied therapeutic
applications for cannabis. Preclinical studies have established
several clear mechanisms of action of cannabis for addressing
chronic pain: reduction of inflammation, mitigation of pain sig-
naling, modification of pain perception, enhancement of sleep,
and complement of other traditional therapeutics used to treat
pain. A large body of survey data establishes the prevalence
and efficacy of cannabis use by patients to treat chronic pain.
Finally, a large body of clinical trials also confirms the promise
of cannabis for addressing chronic pain.
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