Full spectrum THC + CBD extract can be effective for chronic pain
This original research examined the effectiveness of a full-spectrum THC/CBD extract on chronic pain patients. It was published in the Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy in June 2025.
This study was longitudinal in design, meaning it followed the same patients over time - in this case 6 months. All patients had been diagnosed with chronic pain (Visual Analog Pain Scale, or VAS of 4 or more out of 10) lasting more than 3 months by General Practitioner physicians.
They followed 79 patients total. 78% were women and varied in age from 35 to 88 years with a median age of 62 years.
Pain Types included:
- 67% suffered from musculoskeletal pain
- 19% from neuropathic pain
- 5.6% from cancer-related pain.
Patients took an ethanol full-spectrum cannabis flower extract sublingually (tincture). It supplemented their normal medications, including their analgesic (pain) treatments. Patients were followed up every thirty days for 6 months. They tracked variables such as pain, mood, appetite, fatigue, depression, anxiety and difficulty in sleeping using various standard scales.
The results show that a significant portion of the patients (but not all) experienced symptom reduction of more than 50%. Like most drugs, not everyone responds the same way, and some patients simply do not respond at all. It has been proven that each person has unique liver enzyme amounts and types, so how each person processes medications can be very different.
For pain control, the effective average daily dose was about 4mg THC + 2mg CBD, considered a relatively small dose. However, the authors noted that " There were differences in the effective doses required to reach pain reduction among patients, which could indicate inter-individual variability and therefore require titration."
Results summary (p < .0000001):
- 65% of the patients experienced a reduction in pain symptoms of at least 50%
- 43% of the patients experienced a reduction in anxiety symptoms of at least 50%
- 55% of the patients experienced a reduction in insomnia symptoms of at least 50%
- 26% of the patients discontinued use of all other pain medications or anti-inflammatory drugs
Authors' quotes:
The doses that were related with a 50% or more reduction in pain after 6 months were 4.1 ± 2.0 mg THC per day
A significant decrease in both pain and other life quality parameters was observed between time zero and subsequent time intervals, excepting the “appetite” variable.
These results are consistent with previous studies, supporting effectiveness and safety of cannabis extracts as adjuvants in the treatment of chronic pain
13.6% reported adverse events that included nausea, headache, drowsiness, palpitations, insomnia and increased appetite. They were all considered mild using the World Health Organization (WHO) classification.
The article abstract is available here at PubMed. The full text PDF document is here.
Source:
F A, M L, G B, R GJ, S K, I M. Effectiveness of Full Spectrum Cannabis Extracts in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: An Open Label Study. J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother. 2025 Jun 17:1-7. doi: 10.1080/15360288.2025.2517778. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40526158.