“Cannabis has been used for thousands of years as a therapeutic agent for pain relief, as well as for recreational purposes.
Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC)… produces antinociceptive effects in a wide range of preclinical assays of pain.
Considerable preclinical research has demonstrated the efficacy of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC), the primary psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa, in a wide variety of animal models of pain, but few studies have examined other phytocannabinoids.
Indeed, other plant-derived cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and cannabichromene (CBC) elicit antinociceptive effects in some assays. In contrast, tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), another component of cannabis, antagonizes the pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-THC.
These results suggest that various constituents of this plant may interact in a complex manner to modulate pain.
The primary purpose of the present study was to assess the antinociceptive effects of these other prevalent phytocannabinoids in the acetic acid stretching test, a rodent visceral pain model…
Importantly, the antinociceptive effects of Delta(9)-THC and CBN occurred at lower doses than those necessary to produce locomotor suppression, suggesting motor dysfunction did not account for the decreases in acetic acid-induced abdominal stretching.
These data raise the intriguing possibility that other constituents of cannabis can be used to modify the pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-THC by either eliciting antinociceptive effects (i.e., CBN) or antagonizing (i.e., THCV) the actions of Delta(9)-THC.
The results obtained in the present study are consistent with the view that Δ9-THC is the major phytocannabinoid present in marijuana that produces antinociception in the acetic acid abdominal stretching test.
…these results suggest that there is potential to develop medications containing various concentrations of specific phytocannabinoids to optimize therapeutic effects (e.g., antinociception) and minimize psychomimetic effects.
In sum, the results of the present study further support the notion that Δ9-THC is the predominant constituent of marijuana that is responsible for eliciting antinociceptive effects and indicate that CB1 receptors play a predominant role in mediating these effects.