New research published in the European Journal of Pain is offering some of the first clinical trial insights into the efficacy of microdosing THC to treat chronic pain. The results of the small trial suggest minute doses of THC may confer clinically apparent reductions in pain sensation without inducing psychoactive side effects.
Over the last few years, the data investigating the use of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain has been confusingly contradictory. One hypothesis for this discordancy has been the huge variety of types of cannabis and administration methods leading to an inability to standardize the results.
So, an Israeli pharma-tech company named Syqe Medical set out to try to answer the THC microdose question, and solve the problem of imprecise cannabis dosing. The Syqe Inhaler is a first-of-its-kind product that reportedly enables precise dosing of low-levels of THC.
“Both doses, but not the placebo, demonstrated a significant reduction in pain intensity compared with baseline and remained stable for 150‐min,” the researchers write in the published study. “The 1‐mg dose showed a significant pain decrease compared to the placebo.”
As well as showing relevant reductions in subjective pain sensations, the study reports no signs of cognitive impairment across either active dose. Reports of a psychoactive “high” sensation were significantly greater after the 1,000-microgram dose compared to the 500-microgram dose. The 1,000-microgram dose used in the trial is around five to 10 times less than what many consider to the low-end of a psychoactive dose of THC.