Background
Chronic pain is pain that is considered to last longer than six months. Chronic pain can be mild to excruciating, and episodic or continuous ("Community," n.d.). With chronic pain, the pain may remain active in the nervous system for months or years (Ratini, 2004). A recent study estimated that 31 percent of the adult United States population suffers from chronic pain, most commonly lower back or osteoarthritic pain (Bostwick, 2014). Chronic idiopathic (i.e. non-cancer related) pain is a significant public health concern, characterized by considerable emotional distress and impairment of social and occupational functioning (Zvolensky, 2011). This distress and impairment leave many adults feeling helpless and on the search for a treatment that will manage the pain.
In recent years, many patients who experience chronic pain have turned to cannabinoids as way for pain management. Cannabis (also called marijuana)—from the plant Cannabis Sativa—for analgesic use is that the drug has been used both therapeutically and recreationally for thousands of years. Cannabis is used recreationally because of the euphoria that it produces (Campbell, 2007). Research focused on marijuana has increasingly indicated important connections to pain experience, including the use for the management of pain-related symptoms and medical illness. Cannabinoids can offer analgesic effects for pain related to medical disease, like cancer. It also can be useful for managing migraine pain. Lastly, marijuana has frequently been employed to manage pain-related symptoms, including nausea and vomiting (Zvolensky, 2011). Other medications used for pain management vary depending on the severity of pain by the patient; these medications include Advil, I...
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...e patient; therefore showing its effectiveness in pain management. Smoked marijuana showed a subjective improvement of symptoms compared to a smoked false marijuana cigarette. With a single dose of cannabis, the best that can be achieved is nociceptive pain that is equivalent to a single dose of codeine 60 milligrams. In conclusion, cannabinoids are a modestly effective and safe treatment option for chronic non-cancer pain. On the other hand, there is room for more randomized controlled studies of cannabis, as well as pharmaceutical research and development based upon new understandings. Some of the effects that cannabinoids had on patients with chronic pain could be in part to underlying aspects of the patients life; therefore more comparative research to traditional pain medications could be made to enhance the results of the other studies that have been made.
Since the beginning of time, marijuana has been used for healing—and science has, to an extent, corroborated its healing properties. Marijuana helps users cope with pain amongst several other alleged benefits. Research remains suspended due to the prejudices of today’s society.
While cannabis still has its own risks, it’s overall a much safer option to treat chronic pain. Plus, when patients take the correct strain and dose, it doesn’t get them high. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the non-psychoactive elements of cannabis that balances out THC—the psychoactive component. Many strains are meant to help relieve pain as well as improve mental clarity so patients can go about their daily lives. Compared to recreational users, patients need miniscule amounts of medical cannabis to obtain relief.
Kalant, Harold. “Medicinal Use of Cannabis: History and Current States.” Pain Research and Management 6.2 (2001): 80-94. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Chronic pain is something many people deal with on a daily basis. At sometime in life,
Marijuana can be very helpful to the people that have non-neuropathic pain or neuropathic pain. In the article, Does marijuana really relieve pain?, It shows that there are two kinds of neuropathic pains “There are two main types of pain: non-neuropath...
Marijuana is often referred to as a drug, but this “drug” has been proven to kill a portion of cancer and help other diseases. Marijuana for years has been judge as a harmful drug for teens and adults, but in reality marijuana saves lives and helps patients with pain who suffer from severe diseases. Besides helping patients with cancer, marijuana has also help people who have diabetes and anxiety. Marijuana can’t cure these diseases but it does help patients who suffer from pain keep calm and relieve their pain. “Nonetheless, cannabis has recently been the focus of medical research and considered as a potential therapeutic treatment and cure for cancer.Cannabinoids have been proven to reduce cancer cells as they have a great impact on the rebuilding of the immune system. While not every strain of cannabis has the same effect, more and more patients are seeing success in cancer reduction in a short period of time by using cannabis.” (“Cannabis...
The author Abdalrahim et al. (2010) stated that nurses are not being properly educated in pain and pain management; in an effort to better form an opinion on this theory, it is imperative that we have an accurate and consistent definition of pain. According to Engebretson, Monsivais, & Mahoney (2006), “Pain results from somatosensory, cognitive and emotional events, and, in the case of chronic pain, neuroplastic changes that alter the physiology and change nervous system responses to various stimuli”. There are two distinct types of pain, acute and chronic. Ferrell (2005) suggest that acute pain can be manifested by different types of trauma (sprained ankle, broken leg, stubbed toe, pulled muscle, etc.), surgical incisions or body parts manipulated during surgery, and even the effects of a cold. Chronic pain can be portrayed as many medical conditions, some examples are: migraine headaches, arthritis, clinical depression, fibromyalgia, and spinal stenosis (Ferrell, 2005). The best definition of pain for nurses to adhere to was stated by Margo McCaffrey (1968), “Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does”.
Medically, marijuana has proven to be a productive drug. Studies show marijuana has helped dealing with “pain, muscle spasms, seizure disorders and nausea from cancer chemotherapy.” (Weir) Scientist believes these benefits come from a chemical compound in marijuana called cannabidiol. This chemical is not the active chemical that gives marijuana users the mind-altering effects. With the unce...
Chronic Pain is described as a long lasting pain that people experience beyond a normal healing time (Hasenbring, Rusu & Turk, 2012). This time is usually up to three or six months prior to an incident (Hasenbring, Rusu & Turk, 2012). Chronic back pain can include common diagnosis of muscle spasms, back strain, or myofasical syndrome (Weiner & Nordin, 2010). There are three different types of chronic back pain; simple musculoskeletal back pain, spinal nerve root pain and serious spinal pathology (Jackson & Simpson, 2006). (Hasenbring, 2012)
Recent studies are determining if the use of medical marijuana is found to be beneficial. Cannabinoids are chemicals related to THC, marijuana's main mind-altering ingredient. THC and CBD are the two main cannabinoids from marijuana plants, in medical interests. THC can increase your appetite and reduce nausea, it can also decrease inflammation and pain, as well as muscle control problems. CBD can control epileptic seizures, reduce swelling and inflammation, and may be able to treat mental illness
Degenhardt, L, & Hall, W.D. (2008). The Adverse Effects of Cannabinoids: Implication for use of Medical Marijuana. Canadian Medical Association, 178,1-2.
Medical marijuana users claim the drug helps relieve pain and suppress nausea. there's a spasm Leeuwenhoek’s illness. Chaz is one among many that presently have the illness. Chaz’s condition causes non-stop spasms within the abdominal muscles that causes sharp pain thought his body, and result his respiratory and speaking. Smoking marijuana was ready to calm the attacks presently. Another case was with a trifle woman, her oldsters treat their 5-year-old female offspring employing a “medical marijuana strain high in cannabidiol and low in psychoactive drug.” (23 Health Facts of Marijuana, Jennifer Welsh) Researches found “cannabidiol (CBD) impacts the brain principally while not a high, whereas THC (THC) has pain relieving properties.” (23 Health Facts of Marijuana, Jennifer Welsh) Marijuana has slashed her seizures from three hundred every week to simply one each seven days. The doctors United Nations agency suggested this treatment say that "the cannabidiol within the plant interacts with the brain cells to quiet the excessive activity within the brain that causes these seizures.” (23 Health Facts of Marijuana, Jennifer
One of the latest problems facing health personnel is that of severe and long-lasting pain which mostly affects the elderly in the developed nations across the world. These problems faced by medical professionals are quite specific and generally involve taking care of patients who are difficult to treat due to intense suffering from pain. Pain necessitating treatment ranges in cause from cancer, multiple-sclerosis, neuropathic, pancreatitis, pain from previous injury and many others. In most cases, these conditions are only mildly mitigated by conventional treatments that include opiates, non-opioid pain relievers, and antidepressants. External pain management (such as TENS units, ice, and heat) also fail to provide adequate relief. America
Today effective pain control is one of the most important and pressing issue that we face in the medical field. The importance of this issue comes from the fact that approximately half of the population of western countries have many patients in chronic pain, and a large number with acute pain, and seeing that it is being inadequately relieved (Bonica, 2008). Chronic pain can be described as any pain lasting more than twelve weeks, or a persistent pain. Whereas acute pain can be referred to a sensation that alerts us to possible injury or disease. Often pain is viewed as an inevitable part of illness, and otherwise over looked as unmanageable.
Even doctors and scientists work with only a rudimentary knowledge of how and why pain occurs. The complexity and the personal nature of pain make research and advancement a challenging problem. Most modern tests cannot fully account for pain – scans and laboratory tests cannot document the severity of pain, but many tests can reveal pain-related chemicals in the body and potential physical or disease causes. After ruling out potential physical causes, doctors must rely on the patient’s own description of the pain in order to properly treat or manage the