Quebec, Canada: Nearly one-third of patients living with chronic pain conditions acknowledge using cannabis for pain management, according to data published in the Canadian Journal of Pain.
Canadian investigators assessed cannabis use trends in a cohort of 1,935 chronic pain patients residing in Quebec. (Cannabis products are legal for both medical purposes and for adult use in Canada.)
Just over 30 percent of patients in the sample said that they used cannabis explicitly for purposes of pain management.
Authors identified greater cannabis prevalence among younger patients, but they reported no significant differences between men and women with respect to how likely they were to consume the substance.
“Cannabis is thus a common treatment reported in people living with CP [chronic pain],” they concluded. “Our study re-emphasizes the importance of rapidly generating evidence on the safety and effectiveness of cannabis, in addition to age-tailored education and awareness efforts among people living with CP.”
Among patients in US states where medical cannabis access is permitted, over 60 percent are qualified to use it to treat pain.
Full text of the study, “Prevalence of cannabis use for pain management in Quebec: A post-legalization estimate among generations living with chronic pain,” appears in the Canadian Journal of Pain. Additional information on cannabis and pain management is available from NORML.
Source: NORML – make a donation