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Role of Cannabinoids in Pain Management

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Comprehensive Treatment of Chronic Pain by Medical, Interventional, and Integrative Approaches

Abstract

It is a curious fact that we owe a great deal of our insight into pharmacological treatment of pain to the plant world. Willow bark from Salix spp. led to development of aspirin and eventual elucidation of the analgesic effects of prostaglandins and their role in inflammation. The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) provided the prototypic narcotic analgesic morphine, the first alkaloid discovered, and stimulated the much later discovery of the endorphin and enkephalin systems. Similarly, the pharmacological properties of cannabis (Cannabis sativa) prompted the isolation of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in 1964. It is this breakthrough that subsequently prompted the more recent discovery of the body’s own cannabis-like system, the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which modulates pain under physiological conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GW Pharmaceuticals, 20402 81st Avenue SW, Vashon, WA, 98070, USA

    Ethan B. Russo M.D.

  2. Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Ethan B. Russo M.D.

  3. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Andrea G. Hohmann Ph.D.

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Correspondence to Ethan B. Russo M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Center for Pain Relief, Inc., West Virginia University, 400 Court Street, Suite 100, Charleston, 25301, West Virginia, USA

    Timothy R. Deer

  2. Stanford Pain Management Center, Redwood City, CA, Clinic Chief, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, 94065, California, USA

    Michael S. Leong

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Rush Medical College, Professor, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, 60612, Illinois, USA

    Asokumar Buvanendran

  4. Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, 17033-0850, Pennsylvania, USA

    Vitaly Gordin

  5. Center for Interventional Pain and Spine, Newark, DE USA, Medical Director, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr, 19010, Pennsylvania, USA

    Philip S. Kim

  6. President, National Institute of Pain, Tampa, 33558, Florida, USA

    Sunil J. Panchal

  7. The LITE Center, Clinical Associate Professor, Medical Director, School of Medicine, Miami, 33143, Florida, USA

    Albert L. Ray

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Russo, E.B., Hohmann, A.G. (2013). Role of Cannabinoids in Pain Management. In: Deer, T., et al. Comprehensive Treatment of Chronic Pain by Medical, Interventional, and Integrative Approaches. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1560-2_18

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