Researching medical cannabis as a treatment for chronic pain led me to a fascinating article published by Talker Research. The article discussed a survey looking into attitudes on pain and how it is dealt with. It left me wondering if there is any other medical condition we know less about.
We like to think we know a lot about pain. That may be true from a personal experience perspective, but it is far from the truth in terms of medical science. The science on pain is actually quite limited. Researchers acknowledge that people feel pain. We know from studies on biology and physiology why certain types of pain exist.
Still, our knowledge of pain is limited to biological and physiological mechanisms. We do not know why people have different pain thresholds. We don’t know why pain reported as minor by one person qualifies as the most severe pain to someone else. We do not know why some patients respond to certain pain treatments while others do not.
Pain Is a Personal Experience
In reality, pain is a very personal experience. We demonstrate this scientifically in the fact that there is no diagnostic test to prove the existence or severity of pain. By contrast, there are a number of diagnostic tests we can rely on to confirm a cancer diagnosis.
Doctors can turn to X-rays, MRIs, and other proven diagnostic tools to confirm a cancer diagnosis. Those same diagnostic tools can reveal the severity of the disease. If an oncologist determines a patient is suffering from stage-2 cancer, it is because diagnostic testing proves it. Things are completely different when it comes to pain.
There is no way for a doctor to confirm pain. Doctors can only ask patients to report their experiences. They use a variety of pain scales to determine how severe a patient’s pain is. But when all is said and done, a doctor’s diagnosis of pain relies exclusively on patient reports.
Patients Simply Want Relief
Getting back to the previously mentioned survey, its data reveals that chronic pain patients simply want relief. They report being willing to give up things that are especially important to them, if that’s what it takes. Even beyond relieving the pain itself, survey respondents said they would be willing to spend $1,800 just to get answers from their doctors.
Survey respondents also reported being willing to try alternative treatments. They are open to dietary supplements including iron, turmeric, fish oil, and colostrum. Indeed, 78% are open to all sorts of natural treatments. Although the study did not mention cannabis, it is one of the more often utilized alternatives.
The Number One Qualifying Condition
Patients in most states with medical cannabis programs need to cite a qualifying condition on their cannabis card applications. Nationwide, the most cited condition is medical marijuana for chronic pain. Such is the case in Utah, where Utahmarijuana.org says the second-place qualifying condition (PTSD) does not even come close.
Critics have suggested that chronic pain is being used as a cover to gain access to state-legal marijuana under the guise of medicinal use. While that may be true, the little bit we know about how difficult chronic pain is to treat suggests it is probably not.
Chronic pain is a very real problem that impacts millions of people. It impacted the same number of people long before medical cannabis became a thing. Therefore, no one should be surprised that the majority of medical cannabis users are chronic pain patients. We know so little about pain that we have failed to come up with a treatment that works better than cannabis.
