Using

Marijuana to
Treat Diabetic
Nerve Pain
With commentary by lead study
author Mark Steven Wallace,
MD, chair of the Division of Pain
Management at the University
of California, San Diego
A new randomized, controlled
study from the University of
California at San Diego has
shown that inhaling cannabis
can blunt diabetic neuropathic
pain for several hours. We
found that the more
concentrated the dose, the more
relief people got, says lead
author Mark Steven Wallace,
MD, chair of the Division of Pain
Management at the University
of California, San Diego.
In the study, published in the
July issue of the Journal of Pain,
Dr. Wallace and his team
recruited 16 patients with pain
in their feet from diabetesrelated nerve damage. They
randomly assigned them to
inhale one of three doses of
cannabis using vaporization, a
process that heats the leaf
enough to release the active
ingredients but not hot enough

to flash the leaf into smoke.

(This method makes pots
effects peak faster and avoids
the hazardous carbon monoxide
associated with burning the
leaves.) Some participants got a
placebo. After a two week-break,
they crossed over to a different
dosage and repeated the test.

How Pot Works on Pain

There are cannabinoid receptors
on inflammatory cells as well as
throughout the nervous system
nerves, spinal cord and brain,
Dr. Wallace explains. When
these receptors are stimulated,
the result is pain relief and a
decrease in inflammation.
This was the first study of its
kind to also look at the cognitive
effects of cannabis, and Wallace
and team were pleased to find
the effects minimal.
These findings are especially
important, Dr. Wallace notes,
because neuropathic

pain is widespread, affecting

some 60 to 70 percent of people
with diabetes, according to
National Institutes of Health
data, and few good medications
exist to help manage it.
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy
is one of the most common
neuropathic pain syndromes in
our society, he
explains, exceeded only by low
back pain. There are very few
treatment options and most of
the medications available have
dose-limiting side effects.
Dr. Wallace and team see
inhaled cannabis as a viable
option for controlling
neuropathic pain. Medicinal
marijuana has been legal in
California since 1996, and we
have learned a lot during this
time, he says. I frequently
recommend medicinal
marijuana to treat a variety of
painful conditions.
And what about the "high"
factor? It may limit clinical use,
Dr. Wallace admits. However,
there is component of marijuana
called cannabidiol that doesnt
seem to make people high. Dr.
Wallace is optimistic about its
future use for pain control.
Last updated on 07/29/2015