Smoking marijuana modestly reduced pain and other symptoms of chronic neuropathic pain, results of a small randomized, placebo-controlled trial showed. The most potent dose used reduced average daily pain scores by 0.7 points on an 11-point scale (5.4 versus 6.1 with placebo, 95% confidence interval for difference 0.02 to 1.4), according to Mark A. Ware, MBBS, of McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues.
Those who smoked weed with 9.4% of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol THC) also reported sleeping better, the researchers reported online in CMAJ.These results are important in light of the fact that patients who hear about pain relief from ongoing publicity about medical marijuana have had only a "trickle" of evidence to prove it, explained Henry J. McQuay, DM, of Oxford University, in an accompanying editorial.