doi: 10.1055/a-2231-6630.
- PMID: 38198809
- DOI: 10.1055/a-2231-6630
Abstract
Chronic pain is primarily conceptualized as a disease in its own right when it is associated with emotional distress and functional impairment. Pathophysiologically, dysfunction of the cortico-mesolimbic connectome is of major importance, with overlapping signals in the nociceptive and stress systems. The endocannabinoid system plays an important role in the central processing of nociceptive signals and regulates the central stress response. Clinically, there is moderate evidence that cannabis-based medicines (CBM) can contribute to a significant reduction in pain, especially the associated pain effect, and improvement in physical function and sleep quality in a proportion of patients with chronic pain. The analgesic effect appears to be largely independent of the cause of pain. In this context, CBM preferentially regulates stress-associated pain processing.
The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Conflict of interest statement
MK has received speaker honoraria from Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC), Demecan, EVER Pharma, Grunenthal, Hormosan, IUVO Therapeutics, Lilly, Medical Service of the Health Insurance Funds, Novartis, Stadapharm, Teva, and Tilray. He has received consultancy fees from Almirall. He has received expert opinion fees from several local and social courts. He is member of the ad-hoc commission cannabis in medicine of the German Pain Society and the Science Network Cannabinoids in Medicine (WCM).
