Cannabis is no better than a placebo for treating pain – new research

theconversation.com

18 points·giuliomagnifico··7 comments

It seems like there is room for more study here. In particular pain comes in many forms with variation in intensity and localization or generalization. My understanding from limited review of the literature here is that cannabis does not actually treat the pain so much as it changes the reaction to the pain by enabling people to handle it differently and maintain a regular mood and range of activities which can be difficult without. The good news is that this subject is finally getting some serious study.

That's interesting. I tried to use it years and years ago for pain relief and found it actually made my pain worse AFTER the initial high wore off. I just put it down to me, but maybe it could be due to dinner if those things you mentioned.

> The good news is that this subject is finally getting some serious study.

For what I know this is possible since few years when the cannabis has been legalized. Because before it was not allowed to make scientific researches on it

It is still illegal at a federal level and only this year did the government authorize research using cannabis.

Thanks for the clarification! (PS: I’m Italian and here’s still illegal at any level and this is a shame)

>Our study also revealed many participants can distinguish between a placebo and active cannabis, despite having the same odour, taste and appearance. If they are aware that they are receiving or not receiving cannabinoids, they are more likely to provide a biased assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention. So to ensure researchers are observing the actual effect of cannabis, participants can’t know what they receive.

how do they go about doing this then

They used CBD, not THC.

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