After 17 Years Of Side Effects From Standard Drugs, Chronic Pain Patient Finds Relief With Cannabis: Study

Can medical marijuana bring relief to those suffering from chronic pain?

As per a new case study, recently published by researchers at Drug Science, cannabis could be effective in treating chronic neuropathic pain.

The paper documents the case of a 61-year-old woman with idiopathic small fiber neuropathy, who has been suffering from the associated neuropathic pain for 17 years. During that period, she was prescribed gabapentinoid pregabalin combined with various other agents like duloxetine and topical capsaicin. While these standard treatments helped her manage her pain at some level, the patient experienced unwanted side effects like hearing loss, tinnitus, sleepiness, confusion, and worsening anxiety.

‘Second Chance At Life’

After several months of cannabis treatment through Project Twenty21, one of Europe's largest national medical cannabis registries, the patient said she was given a “second chance at life.” Project Twenty21, launched in 2019 at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London, provides enrolled patients with tracking of their treatment by an independent scientific body, Drug Science.

Within a month of enrolment and getting prescribed full plant extract THC 10mg: CBD 15mg/ml oil, the patient was able to lower her dose of pregabalin and continued to decrease it until Jan 2022.

“I have had peripheral neuropathy for over 17 years and I have tried all sorts of medications and treatments, (traditional and alternative), too many to mention but include ketamine infusions and I even twice trialed a spinal cord stimulator,” the patient shared her perspective. “Nothing has come anywhere close to the pain relief I gain from the prescription cannabis that I have been taking whilst on the Twenty21 study.”

Even though the paper documents one patient’s experience, the authors believe this makes a strong case for the potential of medical marijuana as a treatment for chronic pain.

Peter Sunderland, a lecturer in pharmacy practice at the University of Bath who authored the paper, told Cannabis Health that he thinks the patient may have had even better results if she only started medical marijuana treatment earlier.

“This case is clear cut in that all the evidence-based medicines had been tried, so there wasn’t really anywhere else to go,” Sunderland said. “My gut feeling as a clinician is that if cannabis was prescribed at an early stage for this patient, she would have had a much better outcome earlier on, and not 17 plus years of suffering.

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