Cannabidiol (CBD) is marketed by some suppliers as a painkiller, e.g. for osteoarthritis of the knee. Animal experiments have shown that the substance, which is extracted from the hemp plant, has an anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effect in arthritis. As pain researchers at MedUni Vienna were now able to show for the first time in humans, CBD is not effective as pain medication, even in high doses. The results of the clinical study involving patients from the Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine at MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna have just been published in the prestigious scientific journal “The Lancet Regional Health – Europe”.
86 men and women with an average age of around 63 years who suffered from severe pain due degeneration of the knee joint (osteoarthritis) were involved in the study. While one half of the patients received high-dose cannabidiol (CBD) by the mouth, the other group was given a placebo that was not recognizable as such, i.e. a drug without an active ingredient. The strictly controlled study period of eight weeks showed that CBD did not have a stronger pain-relieving effect than the placebo.
This means that CBD is not an alternative for pain therapy for osteoarthritis of the knee, so the search for more effective options must continue.”
Sibylle Pramhas (Division of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesia, General Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy at…