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How Cannabis Relieves Different Types of Pain
Jun
Medical cannabis is known for its ability to stop seizures, calm pain, and eliminate anxiety. It can also aid people with less well-known—but not uncommon—conditions, some that last a lifetime.
Cannabis is known to relieve pain, but pain can arise for a variety of reasons which makes choosing the right cannabis product tricky. Knowing which cannabinoids (e.g. THC, CBD) have been shown to treat different pain types is useful information to take with you on your next dispensary visit.
The different types of pain fall into three general categories:
- Nociceptive pain
- Neuropathic pain
- Central pain (there’s no firm agreement on the name for this type of pain; fibromyalgia is a common example).
Since each type of pain has a different origin, each type has an optimal treatment strategy.
Pain results from the coordinated activation of brain cells. While these brain regions lead to the sensation of pain, they can also modulate the strength of the pain signals. In some instances, you can have physical injury (i.e., nociceptive pain) without the sensation of pain (imagine a car accident victim who can walk around pain-free in the initial moments after the accident).
But the opposite is also possible, where you can have pain in the absence of physical injury (i.e., central pain). This highlights the importance that factors like mood, context, and attention-to-injury play in the sensation of pain, which can also be used to inform optimal cannabis-based treatment strategies.
THC can modulate pain at the level of spinal cord and brain by directly activating CB1 receptors, and indirectly by increasing opioid receptor activation (more on that in part two of this series). CBD similarly impacts pain processing by increasing levels of the endogenous cannabinoid, anandamide, which acts like THC to activate CB1 receptors.
CBD also has a host of targets beyond the endogenous cannabinoid system(ECS) that can relieve pain. Of particular relevance, CBD enhances the activity of receptors for the brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. Through this inhibitory effect, CBD can dampen pain signals as they make their way into the brain.
When you’re feeling good, you’re less likely to focus on the things that hurt. Not only does a positive mood shift your attention away from the things that bother you, but it can also directly reduce the strength of pain signals that enter the brain. It’s a mind-over-matter phenomenon and it can be powerful when it comes to pain, at least at the beginning.
