Nielk
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Study: Vaporized Cannabis Augments The Analgesic Effects Of Opiates In Human Subjects
Written by Press Release
Friday, 11 November 2011 09:06
San Francisco, CA--(ENEWSPF)--November 11, 2011. Cannabis administration significantly
augments the analgesic effects of opiates in patients with chronic pain, according to clinical trial
data
published online in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
Investigators at the University of California, San Francisco assessed the use of vaporized
cannabis over a five-day period in 21 chronic pain subjects who were on a regimen of
twice-daily doses morphine or oxycodone. Participants in the trial inhaled cannabis vapor on the
evening of day 1 of the study, three times a day on days 2 through 4, and in the morning of day
5. Subjects' extent of chronic pain was assessed daily.
Researchers determined that subjects' pain "was significantly decreased after the addition of
vaporized cannabis" and surmised that cannabis-specific interventions "may allow for opioid
treatment at lower doses with fewer [patient] side effects."
They concluded: "The participants experienced less pain after 5 days of inhaling vaporized
cannabis; when the morphine and oxycodone groups were combined, this reduction in pain was
significant. This is the first human study to demonstrate that inhaled cannabis safely augments
the analgesic effects of opioids. ... These results suggest that further controlled studies of the
synergistic interaction between cannabinoids and opioids are warranted."
Full text of the study, "Cannabinoid-Opioid interaction in chronic pain," appears in Clinical
Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
Source: norml.org
Written by Press Release
Friday, 11 November 2011 09:06
San Francisco, CA--(ENEWSPF)--November 11, 2011. Cannabis administration significantly
augments the analgesic effects of opiates in patients with chronic pain, according to clinical trial
data
published online in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
Investigators at the University of California, San Francisco assessed the use of vaporized
cannabis over a five-day period in 21 chronic pain subjects who were on a regimen of
twice-daily doses morphine or oxycodone. Participants in the trial inhaled cannabis vapor on the
evening of day 1 of the study, three times a day on days 2 through 4, and in the morning of day
5. Subjects' extent of chronic pain was assessed daily.
Researchers determined that subjects' pain "was significantly decreased after the addition of
vaporized cannabis" and surmised that cannabis-specific interventions "may allow for opioid
treatment at lower doses with fewer [patient] side effects."
They concluded: "The participants experienced less pain after 5 days of inhaling vaporized
cannabis; when the morphine and oxycodone groups were combined, this reduction in pain was
significant. This is the first human study to demonstrate that inhaled cannabis safely augments
the analgesic effects of opioids. ... These results suggest that further controlled studies of the
synergistic interaction between cannabinoids and opioids are warranted."
Full text of the study, "Cannabinoid-Opioid interaction in chronic pain," appears in Clinical
Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
Source: norml.org