Study in Israel finds benefits from medical marijuana for pain

Elderly patients with chronic pain experienced significant symptom improvement from use of medical marijuana in a six-month study, with minimal side effects, researchers in Israel have reported.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute at Soroka University Medical Center surveyed patients ages 65 and older who received marijuana through Israel's largest medical marijuana supplier. Many of these individuals were experiencing pain from cancer. The vast majority of a group of 901 patients reported a decrease in their experience of pain from a median of eight to a median of four on a 10-point scale.

In addition, the researchers reported in The European Journal of Internal Medicine, nearly 60% of patients who at baseline had reported bad or very bad quality of life were rating their quality of life as good or very good at six months.

Side effects were found to be minimal, with dizziness and dry mouth the most frequently reported adverse effects. Around one-quarter of the patients using medical cannabis smoked the drug.