“This study found that marijuana use was more common among adults with medical conditions than those without such conditions.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31539078/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2751558
“The cannabinoid 2 receptor (CB2R) is a promising anti-inflammatory drug target and development of selective CB2R ligands may be useful for treating sight-threatening ocular inflammation. This study examined the pharmacology of three novel chemically-diverse selective CB2R ligands. These unique ligands are potent and selective for CB2R and have good immunomodulating actions in the eye. The data generated with these three structurally-diverse and highly-selective CB2R agonists support selective targeting of CB2R for treating ocular inflammatory diseases.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31540271
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/18/3338
“Patients with serious illness often have pain, uncontrolled symptoms, and poor quality of life. Evidence continues to evolve regarding the role of cannabis to treat chronic pain, nausea, and anorexia. Little is known about how patients with serious illness perceive its benefits and harms. Given that an increasing number of clinicians across the United States are treating patients with medical cannabis, it is important for providers to understand patient beliefs about this modality. We assessed patient perceptions of benefits and harms of cannabis who obtained a medical cannabis card within an ambulatory palliative care (APC) practice.
Results: All 101 patients invited to participate completed the survey. A majority had cancer (76%) and were married (61%), disabled or retired (75%), older than 50 years of age (64%), and men (56%). Most patients ingested (61%) or vaporized (49%) cannabis products. A majority of respondents perceived cannabis to be important for their pain (96%) management. They reported that side effects were minimally bothersome, and drowsiness was the most commonly reported bothersome harm (28%). A minority of patients reported cannabis withdrawal symptoms (19%) and concerns for dependency (14%). The majority of patients were using concurrent prescription opioids (65%). Furthermore, a majority of cancer patients reported cannabis as being important for cancer cure (59%).
Conclusion: Patients living with serious illnesses who use cannabis in the context of a multidisciplinary APC practice use cannabis for curative intent and for pain and symptom control. Patients reported improved pain, other symptoms, and a sense of well-being with few reported harms.”
“An increased risk of cardiovascular events on a population level was not observed on “4/20.””
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31542258
https://www.onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(19)30356-3/fulltext
“Globally, chronic pain is a major therapeutic challenge and affects more than 15% of the population. As patients with painful terminal diseases may face unbearable pain, there is a need for more potent analgesics.
Although opioid-based therapeutic agents received attention to manage severe pain, their adverse drug effects and mortality rate associated with opioids overdose are the major concerns.
Evidences from clinical trials showed therapeutic benefits of cannabis, especially delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabinoids reduced neuropathic pain intensity in various conditions. Also, there are reports on using combination cannabinoid therapies for chronic pain management.
The association of cannabis dependence and addiction has been discussed much and the reports mentioned that it can be comparatively lower than other substances such as nicotine and alcohol.
More countries have decided to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis and marijuana.
Healthcare professionals should keep themselves updated with the changing state of medical cannabis and its applications.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31535218
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00540-019-02680-y
“Neutrophil trafficking into damaged or infected tissues is essential for the initiation of inflammation, clearance of pathogens and damaged cells, and ultimately tissue repair. Neutrophil recruitment is highly dependent on the stepwise induction of adhesion molecules and promigratory chemokines and cytokines.
A number of studies in animal models have shown the efficacy of cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) agonists in limiting inflammation in a range of preclinical models of inflammation, including colitis, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Recent work in preclinical models of inflammation raises two questions: by what mechanisms do CB2 agonists provide anti-inflammatory effects during acute inflammation and what challenges exist in the translation of CB2 modulating therapeutics into the clinic.”
“Interestingly, increasing recent evidence points toward the involvement of the endocannabinoid system (ECBS) in the neurobiological processes related to stimulant addiction.
This article presents an up-to-date review with deep insights into the pivotal role of the ECBS in the neurobiology of stimulant addiction and the effects of its modulation on addictive behaviors. This article aims to: (1) review the role of cannabis use and ECBS modulation in the neurobiological substrates of psychostimulant addiction and (2) evaluate the potential of cannabinoid-based pharmacological strategies to treat stimulant addiction.
A growing number of studies support a critical role of the ECBS and its modulation by synthetic or natural cannabinoids in various neurobiological and behavioral aspects of stimulants addiction. Thus, cannabinoids modulate brain reward systems closely involved in stimulants addiction, and provide further evidence that the cannabinoid system could be explored as a potential drug discovery target for treating addiction across different classes of stimulants.
Interestingly, emerging human data supports a role for ECBS modulation in vulnerability to psychostimulant addiction, and more significantly in addictive behaviors among dependent individuals. Accumulating evidence thus points to the ECBS as a critical target for the development of pharmacotherapies for the treatment of addiction to psychostimulants.
Given the various neuropharmacological actions of exogenous cannabinoids, and their ability to modulate the acute reinforcing effects of drugs, data on Δ9-THC and CBD is particularly promising as to the potential use of cannabinoids in relapse prevention strategies for psychostimulant-dependent individuals.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00109/full
“Aim: Marijuana use has been postulated to modulate opioid use, dependence and withdrawal. Broad target drug testing results provide a unique perspective to identify any potential interaction between marijuana use and opioid use.
Materials & methods: Using a dataset of approximately 800,000 urine drug test results collected from pain management patients of a time from of multiple years, creatinine corrected opioid levels were evaluated to determine if the presence of the primary marijuana marker 11-nor-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) was associated with statistical differences in excreted opioid concentrations.
Results & conclusion: For each of the opioids investigated (codeine, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, fentanyl and buprenorphine), marijuana use was associated with statistically significant lower urinary opiate levels than in samples without indicators of marijuana use.”
“Colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever can be treated by anti-IL-1 biologic therapy; however, such treatment needs approval by the health insurance company, and many patients are denied such treatment or do not respond to it.
CASE REPORT Two familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients, both homozygous for M694V mutation and resistant to colchicine treatment, were treated with medical cannabis. Prior to that, 1 patient was denied biologic treatment and the other had no significant response to anakinra.
Under medical cannabis treatment, both patients had remarkable improvement in the severity of the attacks and also a decrease in the frequency of the attacks, from once every 2 weeks to 1 attack every month in 1 patient; this patient had also a remarkable reduction in the C-reactive protein level during the attacks.
CONCLUSIONS Cannabis is a therapeutic option for treating the most complex patients with FMF.”
A total of 25 studies involving 2270 patients were included. We found that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol/cannabidiol (THC/CBD) (oromucosal route), THC (oromucosal route), and standardized dried cannabis (with THC; SCT; inhalation route) could reduce neuropathic pain score (SMD -0.41, 95% CI -0.7 to -0.1; -0.61, 95% CI -1.2 to -0.02; and -0.77, 95% CI -1.4 to -0.2; respectively). For nociceptive pain, only standardized cannabis extract (with THC; SCET) via oral route could reduce pain score (SMD -1.8, 95% C; -2.4 to -1.2). In cancer pain, THC/CBD via oromucosal route and THC via oral or oromucosal route could reduce pain score (SMD -0.7, 95% CI -1.2 to -0.2; and -2.1, 95% CI -2.8 to -1.4; respectively). No study was observed for THC/CBD via oral route or inhalation or THC via inhalation for cancer and nociceptive pain, SCET via oromucosal route or inhalation for neuropathic and cancer pain, THC via oromucosal route for nociceptive pain, and SCT via oromucosal or oral route for neuropathic, cancer, and nociceptive pain. Statistically significant increased risks of euphoria were observed in THC/CBD (oromucosal), THC (oromucosal), and SCT (inhalation).
The use of cannabis and cannabinoids via certain administration routes could reduce different types of pain. Product developers could consider our findings as part of their product design so that the effective route of cannabis and cannabinoids for pain control can be achieved.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31495691
https://www.japha.org/article/S1544-3191(19)30353-X/fulltext