• Charles A Odonkor, Tariq AlFarra, Peju Adekoya, Vwaire Orhurhu, Tomás Rodríguez, Emily Sottosanti, and Alan D Kaye.
• Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Division of Physiatry, Interventional Pain Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. charles.odonkor@yale.edu.
• Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2022 Feb 1; 26 (2): 103-118.

Purpose Of ReviewThe main objective of this review is to appraise the literature on the role of spinal cord stimulation (SCS), cannabinoid therapy, as well as SCS and cannabinoid combination therapy for the management of chronic neuropathic and nociceptive pain. Current research suggests that SCS reduces pain and increases functional status in carefully selected patients with minimal side effects.Recent FindingsAs cannabinoid-based medications become a topic of increasing interest in pain management, data remains limited regarding the clinical efficacy of cannabinoids for pain relief. Furthermore, from a mechanistic perspective, although various pain treatment modalities utilize overlapping pain-signaling pathways, clarifying whether cannabinoids work synergistically with SCS via shared mechanisms remains to be determined. In considering secondary outcomes, the current literature suggests cannabinoids improve quality of life, specifically sleep quality, and that SCS decreases opioid consumption, increases functional capacity, and decreases long-term healthcare costs. These findings, along with the high safety profiles of SCS and cannabinoids overall, incentivize further exploration of cannabinoids as an adjunctive therapy to SCS in the treatment of neuropathic and nociceptive pain.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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