Cannabis tested as surgical painkiller

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is seeking patients scheduled for surgery to take part in a study to find out if oral cannabis plant extract can provide pain relief after an operation.

The MRC say that if it is found to be effective and without adverse side effects, it could provide another pain relief option to doctors and patients.

The trial is looking to recruit 400 surgical patients from participating hospitals across the UK to take part in the study.

Patients will be randomly assigned to one of four oral treatments containing either standardised cannabis extract, tetrahydrocannabinol (an active ingredient in cannabis), a standard pain relieving drug, or a placebo.

Pain relief and side effects will be assessed over a six-hour period. Patients will be asked by a researcher to respond to questions about their pain and general feelings, such as sickness, every half to one hour whilst they are awake. Patients can request additional pain relief at any time.

After six hours of study volunteers may receive a choice of standard pain medications: either another oral drug or an alternative form of pain medication.

There is already some anecdotal evidence, says the MRC, that suggests cannabis could be effective at relieving pain for a variety of debilitating conditions.

Administering drugs to alleviate post-operative pain is a routine procedure in hospitals and this provides a useful way to measure the effects of cannabis against other pain relieving drugs, according the MRC.

The £500K MRC-funded trial is led by Dr Anita Holdcroft from Imperial College London, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

(gmcg)