Systematic review on the effectiveness of medical cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain

Abstract

Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists for more than three months despite being treated. It can be of different types, including peripheral or central neuropathic pain, nociceptive pain due to tissue injuries, musculoskeletal pain affecting joints, back or neck, and inflammatory pain associated with infections or autoimmune conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis. Other conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic pain of unknown aetiology, may also contribute to chronic pain. Unfortunately, conventional treatment, such as NSAIDs, opioids, and non-opioid medications, might not be successful in pain control and relief in the long term. Resultantly, there has been a growing interest in exploring medical cannabis as a viable option for the management of chronic pain. The rationale behind this systematic review stems from inconclusive findings reported in randomised controlled trials, assessing the efficacy of medical cannabis as a treatment option for chronic pain. Moreover, after conducting a general search on this subject, no high-quality systematic reviews focusing on the effectiveness of medical cannabis were found. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to study how well medical cannabis works in treating pain, in the real world and its therapeutic value in the management of chronic pain.