A study published in the July issue of the Journal Anesthesiology discovered that oral cannabis (a form of medical marijuana) not only failed to alleviate certain types of pain in human volunteers but, surprisingly, it instead caused increased sensitivity to some forms of pain.
In their research, Birgit Kraft, M.D., and her colleagues from the Medical University of Vienna evaluated the analgesic potency of orally administered cannabis extract that included its main psychoactive component, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
"The surprising result of our study was the absence of any kind of analgesic activity of THC-standardized cannabis extract on experimentally induced pain using well-established human model procedures," said Dr. Kraft. "Our results also seem to support the impression that high doses of cannabinoids may even cause increased sensitivity in certain pain conditions."
In Dr. Kraft's study, 18 healthy female volunteers were given oral cannabis extract or active placebo and then evaluated for heat and electrical pain thresholds in skin areas of experimentally induced sun burn, an accepted approach to assessing responses to acute pain.
Previous studies have suggested that cannabis and THC may be effective in treating chronic pain, such as in cancer patients, patients with spinal cord injury, or those with multiple sclerosis. And, though inconsistent, some studies on patients with acute pain have suggested beneficial effects
Consistent with the uncertainty about oral cannabis ingestion evaluated in this study, there is also uncertainty in the research community as to whether inhaled cannabis might prove more efficacious for pain relief than orally ingested cannabis.