The use of appropriate dosing of medical cannabis and following key treatment regimen recommendations can lead to “remarkable” improvements in pain and a reduced need for opioids in both adults and children, two pain specialists suggest.
Describing his experience in treating pain with medical cannabis over the past 4 to 5 years, Mark S Wallace, MD, professor of clinical anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego, said he starts with some basic criteria, including that patients have not responded to efforts for pain relief with standard therapy, according to Medscape.
“Our approach in recommending medical cannabis for pain is that patients have failed to respond to conservative therapies first. However, this should be considered before chronic opioids,” Wallace said during a presentation at the American Pain Society (APS) 2018 meeting.