A recent study suggests cannabis provides real pain relief beyond just patient expectations (the placebo effect) — and the presence of terpenoids plays a significant role.
Chronic pain is very common, negatively impacting many millions of people around the world. All sorts of pills and potions are available, ranging from over-the-counter medicines to powerful restricted drugs. All have their own benefits and risks.
Increasingly, many people are turning to medical cannabis (MC) for relief. But it’s still hotly debated whether cannabis really reduces pain or if it’s the placebo effect in action – patients feel better simply because they expect it to work.
Researchers from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology studied 329 people who used medical cannabis and analyzed the chemical makeup of their treatments – over 200 compounds in total.
Of the 329 individuals, 149 (45.3%) reported pain relief, 54 (16.4%) reported minor pain relief and in 126 (38.3%), no pain relief was reported. The researchers found reduction in pain could be predicted from the chemical content of their cannabis, even though patients didn’t know what chemicals they were consuming.
This, state the researchers, suggests that medical cannabis has genuine therapeutic effects for pain management. But another important finding was:
“While well-known cannabinoids such as THC and CBD provide limited predictive value, specific terpenoids, particularly α-Bisabolol and eucalyptol, emerge as key predictors of treatment response.”
So, what are terpenoids?
Terpenoids contribute to the scent, flavours and colours of plants. For example, eucalyptol is also found in eucalyptus, tea tree, and rosemary. It has fresh, camphor-like fragrance and a spicy, cooling taste. It has long been used in mouthwash and cough suppressants, among many other products.
Many terpenoids in cannabis exhibit pharmacological attributes, making them a target for research. It’s long been thought they play a role in entourage effect in cannabis, working with cannabinoids and other elements produce a more potent therapeutic effect.
The researchers state:
“By embracing a more comprehensive approach to understanding MC’s therapeutic potential, we can work towards developing safer, more effective, and more precisely targeted treatments for the millions of individuals suffering from chronic pain worldwide.”
The study has been published in Nature.
