Posted on 09/11/2010 7:35:57 PM PDT by neverdem
People with chronic pain who took just a puff of marijuana three times a day got some mild pain relief and, with rare exceptions, did so without getting high, a Canadian study reports. (Yes, they inhaled.)
The patients, who suffered from persistent nerve damage that did not respond to other pain drugs, also reported better sleep and less anxiety, the researchers said.
The study is one of the first randomly controlled clinical trials to test the pain-relieving properties of smoked marijuana and of its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, said Dr. Mark A. Ware, a pain researcher at McGill University in Montreal who was lead author of the paper, published in The Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Twenty-one adult volunteers, all of them with intractable pain, completed the trial, which compared three different formulations of marijuana with various concentrations of THC — along with a placebo version, a formulation with no THC at all...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I was taking ibuprofen and aleve, plus a prescription headache med that contains the same ingredients as aleve (from time to time) for really bad headaches, and I was just found to have poor kidney filtration. They don’t know if it is from the use of NSAIDs, but I was told to stop using them right away.
The doctor thinks I possibly have MS, but I don’t have enough lesions (other clinical signs, though) for an official diagnosis. I have heard the worst of the bunch are the steroids. I took a round for a tooth problem and part of my gum tissue disappeared over one of my teeth- in 4 days of use. I can’t imagine what it does to your insides from prolonged usage. MM is legal in my state, but my employer forbids the usage.
“If I give you anything desireable, you will probably believe that you have some minor pain relief due to the placebo effect or due to the distraction from pain a pleasurable event offers.”
As I pointed out, a double blind study should account for placebo affects. As for the “distraction from pain a pleasurable event offers”, why shouldn’t that be considered legitimate pain relief? I’ve suffered from chronic pain for years (including two surgeries for ruptured discs) and taken narcotic pain medicine that does more to make me not care that I hurt than actually remove the pain. To me the distinction doesn’t matter, as long as I’m not miserable.
A subjective assessment by definition.
“A double blind study will only be useful if you can objectively measure the dependent variable—in this case, the level of pain. It won’t eliminate the placebo effect or the distraction effect. “
The dependent variable is objectively measured in this case by comparing it to the placebo. If recipients report a greater degree of pain reduction for marijuana than for the placebo, than there has objectively been a reduction in pain.
This isn't a discussion that allows for opinion. If the "recipients report" anything, then it is subjective by definition.
It eases the pain,must be why liberals use it.
I have a 70 year old friend who says a couple of tokes really helps him with the pain associated with his diabetic neuropathy.
Who actually believes that these patients will stop at one puff three times a day? Before you know it, it will be three joints a day.
Wouldn't that also apply to other pain medicines, such as codeine or morphine?
Do you think published studies on pain relief from codeine or morphine have the same crediblility as the marijuana study under discussion?
I give up. If no one here knows the meaninig of “subjective”, I can’t communicate simple scientific facts.
Did you read the article? It says that some chronic pain sufferers got "minor pain relief". There is no OBJECTIVE way to measure this. Opioides are contraindicated for minor pain and their mechanisms have been studied in detail. However, measuring the pain levels of opioid users is still subjective. People report minor pain relief from all kinds of things including meditation and reflexology. One of the tools we use to determine pain level is to hold up a card with 10 "smiley faces" on it and ask the patient to point to the one that describes their level of pain the best. They go from a really happy smiley face to a really unhappy one. We just have to take their word for it.
Every one of these professions, except medical doctor, requires random drug testing. A positive test, no matter when usage occurred, is grounds for being fired. THC remains in adipose tissue for up to six weeks.
It eases the pain,must be why liberals use it.
Liberals are brain dead.
And rotten to the core.
Thank you! So your point about the subjectivity of marijuana for pain relief would also apply to opiates.
The father of a friend of mine was suffering debilitating pain and severw digestive distress from multiple rounds of chemo and radiation, intestinal cancer. He was giving up on life, just wanted to be free of it all, the pain. My friend was at his wits’ end, finally broke down and acquired some. Told me he chopped it up fine in a Cuisinart, melted it into butter with garlic, put it in tubs and refrigerated it, herb butter of sorts. Served on bread, baked potatoes, etcetera. It worked wonders for pain, discomfort, indigestion and inappetance, or so I was told.
Why is that a requirement?
How would you do a double blind experiment on this? The subject is not supposed to know whether they have the drug or the placebo. Kind of hard when they are or are not stoned.
Until it’s double blind, I wouldn’t put much faith in this one.
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