Using medical marijuana helps people who suffer from lower pain significantly reduce their opioid use as well as experience lower pain intensity and functional disability, according to a new study that involved hundreds of patients.
Researchers with Tel Aviv University, Rabin Medical Center and Clalit Health Services in Israel enrolled 1,000 patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) who had previously never used cannabis and tracked their pain, disability status and medication usage annually for a period of 10 years at a specialized orthopedic pain clinic.
After a decade, opioid use, measured in morphine milligram equivalents, “decreased substantially” by 90 percent.
“Opioid reduction was rapid in the first year and remained stable through Year 10,” the researchers wrote.
Pain intensity also dropped by 84 percent, and functional disability was reduced by 30 percent.
The study, published in the European Spine Journal, also looked at how many patients achieved significant pre-specified thresholds for the outcome measures.
For reduced opioid use, 91 percent of patients met the target of at least 50 percent reduction in opioid use.
The goal of 30 percent of greater reduction on a pain intensity scale was achieved by 62 percent of participants. Sixty-two percent of patients reached
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
