Trial reportThe journal of pain2016
An Exploratory Human Laboratory Experiment Evaluating Vaporized Cannabis in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain From Spinal Cord Injury and Disease.
Trial report in The journal of pain, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 8 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
55 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cannabis and Cannabinoid-Based Medicines in the Management of Chronic Pain and Co-Occurring Conditions.Cannabis and cannabinoid research · 2024Pooled it
- The CanPain SCI clinical practice guidelines for rehabilitation management of neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury: 2021 update.Spinal cord · 2022Guideline
- Cannabis and cannabinoids for symptomatic treatment for people with multiple sclerosis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Pharmacotherapeutic Options for Managing Neuropathic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Pain research & management · 2021Pooled it
- The Therapeutic Potential and Usage Patterns of Cannabinoids in People with Spinal Cord Injuries: A Systematic Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Analgesic Effects of Cannabinoids for Chronic Non-cancer Pain: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Meta-Regression.Journal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- 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
- Trial
- Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol for Pain: Preclinical and Clinical Models.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- Understanding Cannabis Use After Spinal Cord Injury: A Canadian Survey Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation · 2025Article
- Cannabinoids in neuropathic pain treatment: pharmacological insights and clinical outcomes from recent trials.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Review
- The effects of nabiximols (Sativex®) on spasticity and non-motor symptoms in chronic spinal cord injury (SCI): a longitudinal prospective study.Spinal cord series and cases · 2025Observational
- Review
- Mechanisms and Therapeutic Prospects of Microglia-Astrocyte Interactions in Neuropathic Pain Following Spinal Cord Injury.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Research and Clinical Practice Involving the Use ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Development of Cannabinoids as Therapeutic Agents in the United States.Pharmacological reviews · 2024Review
- Cannabis use in a Canadian long-term care facility: a case study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Phytocannabinoids for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain: A Scoping Review of Randomised Controlled Trials Published Between 2012 and 2023.Current pain and headache reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
unlabelledUsing 8-hour human laboratory experiments, we evaluated the analgesic efficacy of vaporized cannabis in patients with neuropathic pain related to injury or disease of the spinal cord, most of whom were experiencing pain despite traditional treatment. After obtaining baseline data, 42 participants underwent a standardized procedure for inhaling 4 puffs of vaporized cannabis containing either placebo, 2.9%, or 6.7% delta 9-THC on 3 separate occasions. A second dosing occurred 3 hours later; participants chose to inhale 4 to 8 puffs. This flexible dosing was used to attempt to reduce the placebo effect. Using an 11-point numerical pain intensity rating scale as the primary outcome, a mixed effects linear regression model showed a significant analgesic response for vaporized cannabis. When subjective and psychoactive side effects (eg, good drug effect, feeling high, etc) were added as covariates to the model, the reduction in pain intensity remained significant above and beyond any effect of these measures (all P < .0004). Psychoactive and subjective effects were dose-dependent. Measurement of neuropsychological performance proved challenging because of various disabilities in the population studied. Because the 2 active doses did not significantly differ from each other in terms of analgesic potency, the lower dose appears to offer the best risk-benefit ratio in patients with neuropathic pain associated with injury or disease of the spinal cord. PERSPECTIVE: A crossover, randomized, placebo-controlled human laboratory experiment involving administration of vaporized cannabis was performed in patients with neuropathic pain related to spinal cord injury and disease. This study supports consideration of future research that would include longer duration studies over weeks to months to evaluate the efficacy of medicinal cannabis in patients with central neuropathic pain.
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.