{"id":17518,"date":"2024-06-29T17:56:58","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T16:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=17518"},"modified":"2024-10-05T14:55:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T13:55:28","slug":"cbd-products-dont-ease-pain-and-are-potentially-harmful-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2024\/06\/cbd-products-dont-ease-pain-and-are-potentially-harmful-new-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"CBD products don\u2019t ease pain and are potentially harmful \u2013 new study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"summary-information\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"small-24 columns\">\n<h1 id=\"main-content\">UNIVERSITY OF BATH, UK &#8211; Last updated on Tuesday 26 March 2024<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"small-24 medium-20 columns end\">\n<p class=\"summary\">There is no evidence that CBD products reduce chronic pain, and taking them is a waste of money and potentially harmful to health, new research finds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"small-24 columns\">\n<p>CBD oil may be popular for treating pain but taking it appears to be a waste of money<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"content-strata\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"small-24 medium-15 columns\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<section class=\"main-content\">There is no evidence that CBD products reduce chronic pain, and taking them is a waste of money and potentially harmful to health, according to new research led by the University of Bath.CBD (short for cannabidiol) is one of many chemicals found naturally in the cannabis plant. It\u2019s a popular alternative treatment for pain and is readily available in shops and online in the form of oils, tinctures, vapes, topical creams, edibles (such as gummy bears) and soft drinks.However, consumers would do well to steer clear of these products, according to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jpain.2023.10.009\">new study<\/a>.\u201cCBD presents consumers with a big problem,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/researchportal.bath.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/christopher-eccleston\">Professor Chris Eccleston<\/a>, who led the research from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/research-centres\/centre-for-pain-research-cpr\/\">Centre for Pain Research<\/a>\u00a0at Bath. \u201cIt\u2019s touted as a cure for all pain but there\u2019s a complete lack of quality evidence that it has any positive effects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cIt\u2019s almost as if chronic pain patients don\u2019t matter, and that we\u2019re happy for people to trade on hope and despair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For their study, published this week in\u00a0<em>The Journal of Pain<\/em>, the team \u2013 which included researchers from the Universities of Bath, Oxford and Alberta in Canada \u2013 examined research relevant to using CBD to treat pain and published in scientific journals up to late 2023.<\/p>\n<p>They found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CBD products sold direct to consumers contain varying amounts of CBD, from none to much more than advertised.<\/li>\n<li>CBD products sold direct to consumers may contain chemicals other than CBD, some of which may be harmful and some illegal in some jurisdictions. Such chemicals include THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive component of the cannabis plant.<\/li>\n<li>Of the 16 randomised controlled trials that have explored the link between pain and pharmaceutical-grade CBD, 15 have shown no positive results, with CBD being no better than placebo at relieving pain.<\/li>\n<li>A meta-analysis (which combines data from multiple studies and plays a fundamental role in evidence-based healthcare) links CBD to increased rates of serious adverse events, including liver toxicity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"medical-vs-non-medical-cbd-1965\">Medical vs non-medical CBD<\/h3>\n<p>In the UK, medical cannabis is the only CBD product that is subject to regulatory approval. It&#8217;s occasionally prescribed for people with severe forms of epilepsy, adults with chemotherapy-related nausea and people with multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n<p>Non-medical CBD is freely available in the UK (as well as in the US and many European countries) so long as it contains negligible quantities of THC or none at all. However, CBD products sold on the retail market are not covered by trade standards, meaning there is no requirement for them to be consistent in content or quality.<\/p>\n<p>Most CBD products bought online \u2013 including popular CBD oils \u2013 are known to contain very small amounts of CBD. Moreover, any given product may be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/medical-cannabis\/#:%7E:text=Epidyolex%20for%20children%20and%20adults,cannabis%20that%20makes%20you%20high.\">illegal to possess or supply<\/a>, as there\u2019s a good chance it will contain forbidden quantities of THC.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"chronic-pain-f7e8\">Chronic pain<\/h3>\n<p>An estimated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/bja\/article\/111\/1\/13\/330341\">20% of the adult population<\/a>\u00a0lives with chronic pain, and sufferers are often desperate for help to alleviate their symptoms. It\u2019s no surprise then that many people reach for CBD products, despite their high price tag and the lack of evidence of their effectiveness or safety.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Andrew Moore, study co-author and former senior pain researcher in the Nuffield Division of Anaesthetics at the University of Oxford, said: \u201cFor too many people with chronic pain, there\u2019s no medicine that manages their pain. Chronic pain can be awful, so people are very motivated to find pain relief by any means. This makes them vulnerable to the wild promises made about CBD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that healthcare regulators appear reluctant to act against the spurious claims made by some manufacturers of CBD products, possibly because they don\u2019t want to interfere in a booming market (the global CBD product market was estimated at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.custommarketinsights.com\/report\/cbd-product-market\/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20Custom%20Market%20Insights%20%28CMI%29%2C%20the%20Global,CAGR%20of%20roughly%2011%25%20between%202022%20and%202030.\">US$3 billion in 2021<\/a>\u00a0or \u00a32.4 billion and is anticipated to reach\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/globalcannabistimes.com\/cannabinoids-market-to-triple-to-60-billion-by-2030-cbd-segment-leads-u-s-sales\/\">US$60 billion by 2030<\/a>\u00a0or \u00a348 billion) especially when the product on sale is widely regarded as harmless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat this means is that there are no consumer protections,\u201d said Dr Moore. \u201cAnd without a countervailing body to keep the CBD sellers in check, it\u2019s unlikely that the false promises being made about the analgesic effects of CBD will slow down in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2019s authors are calling for chronic pain to be taken more seriously, with consumer protection becoming a priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntreated chronic pain is known to seriously damage quality of life, and many people live with pain every day and for the rest of their lives,\u201d said Professor Eccleston. \u201cPain deserves investment in serious science to find serious solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><em>Source: https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/announcements\/cbd-products-dont-ease-pain-and-are-potentially-harmful-new-study-finds\/<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNIVERSITY OF BATH, UK &#8211; Last updated on Tuesday 26 March 2024 There is no evidence that CBD products reduce chronic pain, and taking them is a waste of money and potentially harmful to health, new research finds. CBD oil may be popular for treating pain but taking it appears to be a waste of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,9,68,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-drug-specifics","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-europe-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}