Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Feb 2025
UK Medical Cannabis Registry: An Analysis of Clinical Outcomes of Medicinal Cannabis Therapy for Cancer Pain.
Cancer pain (CP) is a prevalent condition with limited pharmacotherapeutic options. Cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) have shown analgesic effects, but their efficacy in CP remains contentious. This study aims to evaluate the change in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and adverse events (AEs) in CP patients treated with CBMPs. ⋯ Improvements in GAD-7, SQS, and EQ-5D-5L index scores were also observed (p < 0.050). Twenty-nine AEs (17.26%) were reported by five patients (2.98%), mostly mild-to-moderate (72.41%). Although the observational design means causality cannot be established, the findings support the development of future randomized controlled trials into CP management with CBMPs.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Feb 2025
Evaluation of Low-Dose Naltrexone for Chronic Pain Management.
Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. More recently, naltrexone has been used off-label at low doses of 4.5 mg daily for chronic pain due to fibromyalgia, neuropathy, complex regional pain syndrome, and multiple sclerosis. While several studies show the promise of low-dose naltrexone in treating chronic pain, most had small sample sizes and short-term follow up, which warrants additional investigation into the effectiveness of low-dose naltrexone. ⋯ The average change in pain score from initiation to most recent visit was -0.83. Low-dose naltrexone was generally well-tolerated with 32% (13 of 41) of Veterans reporting adverse effects including vivid dreams, drowsiness, dizziness, and nausea. Low-dose naltrexone resulted in a small decrease in pain, although may be considered after a patient has failed multiple lines of therapy for additional pain control after a risk versus benefits discussion.