cannabisnews.com: Patients To Get Cannabis in Hospital 










  Patients To Get Cannabis in Hospital 

Posted by CN Staff on August 20, 2003 at 21:41:04 PT
By Sarah Boseley, Health Editor 
Source: Guardian Unlimited 

The medical research council is to spend £500,000 on a controversial trial to see whether or not cannabis can relieve the pain of patients who have undergone surgery, it was announced yesterday. The trial will enroll 400 patients, in spite of a strongly worded and critical review by eminent pain scientists published in the British Medical Journal in July 2001.
The review looked at trials of synthetic cannabinoids derived from cannabis. It found that the substances worked no better than codeine in relieving post-operative pain. The cannabinoids also depressed the central nervous system, limiting their use. "Their widespread introduction into clinical practice for pain management is therefore undesirable. In acute post-operative pain they should not be used," the authors said. Henry McQuay, professor of pain relief at the Nuffield department of anaesthetics at Oxford's Churchill hospital, said yesterday that the review team, of which he had been a member, stood by the findings and that he was surprised at the MRC announcement. "To get the analgesic equivalent to low-dose codeine you were taking a dose [of cannabinoids] which gave you a lot of side effects. It didn't seem to us that it was a good bet, to put it politely," he said. Professor McQuay, who is clinical editor of the journal Pain, said that at his clinic he found patients with neuropathic pain [from nerve damage] who had smoked cannabis without relief. "It's like alcohol. If you are lucky it makes you feel better, which is slightly different from shifting the pain," he said. But the leader of the MRC trial, Anita Holdcroft, of Imperial College and the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, said that no comparison could be made between the post-operative pain trials she would be conducting and those that Prof McQuay and his colleagues had reviewed. "The studies [reviewed in the BMJ] were looking at a synthetic cannabinoid, which is quite different from using the cannabis plant material," she said. "You can't make broad statements that all the drugs don't work when it only relates to one particular type of drug. "We don't have the evidence for cannabis; until we do the trial we won't ... There are no studies of cannabis in post-operative pain so to say it cannot be used when nobody has ever done it is inappropriate." Dr Holdcroft's involvement stems from the early 1990s when she wrote a paper on cannabis use with a patient suffering acute to chronic pain. The MRC trials will use a capsule holding a standardised extract of the entire cannabis plant. Patients awaiting surgery in at least 36 British hospitals will be invited to join the trial. Those tested will, randomly, get either extracts of the cannabis plant, one of its active ingredients, a standard pain-relieving drug, or a placebo. Neither they nor their doctors will know what they have been given. Turning cannabis into a medicine has become a political as well as scientific issue, especially since the Lords' science and technology committee urged trials to take place in 1998. Many multiple sclerosis sufferers say smoking cannabis relieves their symptoms. GW Pharmaceuticals has conducted the required three phases of trials on an oral spray derived from cannabis. A spokeswoman for the multinational firm Bayer, which has signed an agreement to help market the drug, said it was not known whether it would be months or even a year or more before the spray was approved or rejected. GW Pharmaceuticals is also doing trials with cancer patients, but has not pursued the area of post-operative pain. Easing Suffering: Potential Uses Multiple sclerosis:  Many patients have for years claimed their symptoms are relieved by cannabis, which they smoke or eat. Some have been taken to court for possession, which has caused an outcry. The House of Lords science and technology committee took their part when it called for trials of cannabis use in MS in 1998, and returned to the issue in 2001, demanding urgent action to get cannabis products regulated for medicinal use. The MS Society estimated that 1% of 35,000 people with the disease were using the drug illegally. Neuropathic pain:  There is evidence, particularly from animal studies, that cannabis relieves pain from damaged nerves. Pains such as those from amputation do not respond well to narcotics. Anti-nausea:  Clinical trial evidence exists showing cannabis can suppress the nausea and vomiting experienced by cancer patients as a result of chemotherapy. Studies in the 1970s showed that nabilone, a synthetic derivative, was as effective as other anti-nausea drugs and it was licensed as a medicine, but it is little used. Anorexia:  Cannabis has been used to tempt people with eating disorders and lack of appetite. But in regular users the effect is thought to wear off. Note: Controversial trial of 'whole plant' drug after surgery. Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)Author: Sarah Boseley, Health EditorPublished: Thursday, August 21, 2003Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers LimitedContact: letters guardian.co.ukWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Related Articles & Web Site:GW Pharmaceuticalshttp://www.gwpharm.com/NHS Patients To Be Given Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17115.shtmlCannabis Trials Are 'Delaying Tactic'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17114.shtmlCannabis on Trial for Pain Relief http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17108.shtml 

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Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on August 21, 2003 at 07:38:19 PT

Why does Bill Maher support Arianna?
I've just been blown away totally -- Bill Maher is supporting Arianna Huffington for Governor.That seems SO unlikely, I wonder -- how did it happen??I know that he blames the entire War on Drugs on women getting political power in America. Everything bad in this country according to Bill Maher is happening because women are feminizing the country. According Bill's cpmedy routines, women are all lying dimwitted money-grubbing whores. ISo why is he supporting a woman for Governor? Given the way I've heard him talk about the evils of women, I really would have expected him to support a masculine candidate like Arnold.Doesn't he consider Arianna to be a dimwitted lying money-grubbing whore?Or does he only talk that way about the women he dates?I think that if he wants a woman to become GOvernor, then he'd better pay off for a while with his comedy routines that make it sound like women are a plague on the world, because he's at cross-purposes with himself.If he really wants this one woman to win, he'd better stop telling the rest of the women in this state that they are worthless whores.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 21, 2003 at 07:04:48 PT

Dr. Russo
If you want to send your published letter you can use this url. It will wrap for folks this way. I'll remove the url in the comment then because of it not wrapping correctly later. http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/drr.htm
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Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on August 21, 2003 at 04:31:57 PT:

My LTE Published in British Medical Journal
I agree with my friend Anita Holdcroft. Here was my LTE to the BMJ about the study to which Dr. McQuay refers:http://freedomtoexhale.com/drr.htm
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Comment #1 posted by Petard on August 20, 2003 at 23:03:10 PT

Finally someone gets it
Look at the abuse a caring and sincere health care pro gets for using whole PLANT extracts instead of synthetics. The synthetic users don't get it, the organicist (to coin a new word/phrase for one who uses/believes in/understands organic chemicals) does but has to defend her ideas against the synthetists (synthetic believers). Remember agriculture is an economic deadend, more efficient agri methods result in lower prices and thus lower returns per acre (essentially supply goes up driving price down. Think the Fed will ever subsidize mj crops like other ones, get paid for NOT planting mj to keep the price stable? LOL.) Better surgical recovery through organic chemistry is the question since just "regular" (synthetic) chemistry didn't work. A good test of the symbiotic nature of cannabinoids. My guess is it'll work. There's a reason there are different cannabinoid receptors in the body that no one understands yet.
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