A recent study discovered that products containing equal amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most effective for treating pain.

However, cannabis-based medicines can only be prescribed by specialist hospital doctors in the UK National Health Service (NHS) for a few limited conditions such as severe epilepsy, nausea, and muscle stiffness caused by multiple sclerosis (MS). Medicinal cannabis was found to be a safe and effective complementary treatment for pain relief in cancer patients, according to researchers from the School of Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin and the Medical Cannabis Programme in Oncology at Cedars Cancer Centre in Canada.

About 38% of cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain, and 66% of those with advanced or terminal disease suffer from pain.

Although traditional painkillers are frequently used, a third of all patients still experience pain. The study involved 358 adults with cancer recorded by the Quebec Cannabis Registry in Canada over a 3.5-year period (May 2015 to October 2018), with an average age of 57, nearly half (48%) of whom were men, and the three most common cancer diagnoses were genitourinary, breast, and bowel. Pain was the most commonly reported symptom (73%) that led to a prescription of medicinal cannabis.

THC-dominant products were used by approximately 25% of patients, balanced THC:CBD drugs were used by 38%, and CBD-dominant products were used by 17%.