Trial reportPain2013
Amygdala activity contributes to the dissociative effect of cannabis on pain perception.
Trial report in Pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 15 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 15 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Indications of Cannabinoids for the Palliation of Cancer-Associated Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Current oncology reports · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic review and network meta-analysis of the effects of bioactive compounds on pain intensity and quality of life in neuropathic pain patients.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Cannabis-based medicines and medical cannabis for adults with cancer pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of MRI Studies and the "Emotional paiN and social Disconnect (END)" Brain Model of Suicidal Behavior in Youth.Behavioural neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Human surrogate models of central sensitization: A critical review and practical guide.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of neuroimaging and acute cannabis exposure in age-of-risk for psychosis.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The Therapeutic Potential and Usage Patterns of Cannabinoids in People with Spinal Cord Injuries: A Systematic Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Medical Cannabis for Chronic Noncancer Pain: A Systematic Review of Health Care Recommendations.Pain research & management · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effects of cannabinoid administration for pain: A meta-analysis and meta-regression.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2019Pooled it
- Association of Cannabinoid Administration With Experimental Pain in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Cannabis-based medicines for chronic neuropathic pain in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Neuroimaging meta-analysis of cannabis use studies reveals convergent functional alterations in brain regions supporting cognitive control and reward processing.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2018Pooled it
- Cannabinoids for fibromyalgia.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Efficacy, tolerability and safety of cannabinoids in chronic pain associated with rheumatic diseases (fibromyalgia syndrome, back pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis): A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2016Pooled it
- Effects and safety of a CBD-richFrontiers in pharmacology · 2025Trial
- Central encoding of the strength of intranasal chemosensory trigeminal stimuli in a human experimental pain setting.Human brain mapping · 2020Trial
- In an exploratory randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, psychoactive doses of intravenous delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol fail to produce antinociceptive effects in healthy human volunteers.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Cannabis analgesia in chronic neuropathic pain is associated with altered brain connectivity.Neurology · 2018Trial
- Effects of oral ΔEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Trial
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Cannabis is reported to be remarkably effective for the relief of otherwise intractable pain. However, the bases for pain relief afforded by this psychotropic agent are debatable. Nonetheless, the frontal-limbic distribution of cannabinoid receptors in the brain suggests that cannabis may target preferentially the affective qualities of pain. This central mechanism of action may be relevant to cannabinoid analgesia in humans, but has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a naturally occurring cannabinoid, on brain activity related to cutaneous ongoing pain and hyperalgesia that were temporarily induced by capsaicin in healthy volunteers. On average, THC reduced the reported unpleasantness, but not the intensity of ongoing pain and hyperalgesia: the specific analgesic effect on hyperalgesia was substantiated by diminished activity in the anterior mid cingulate cortex. In individuals, the drug-induced reduction in the unpleasantness of hyperalgesia was positively correlated with right amygdala activity. THC also reduced functional connectivity between the amygdala and primary sensorimotor areas during the ongoing-pain state. Critically, the reduction in sensory-limbic functional connectivity was positively correlated with the difference in drug effects on the unpleasantness and the intensity of ongoing pain. Peripheral mechanisms alone cannot account for the dissociative effects of THC on the pain that was observed. Instead, the data reveal that amygdala activity contributes to interindividual response to cannabinoid analgesia, and suggest that dissociative effects of THC in the brain are relevant to pain relief in humans.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.