Clinical Trials
South Africa: Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain Trial Very Promising
South Africa: Medical cannabis for chronic pain trial looks extremely promising.
Here in the UK there are many private health clinics currently prescribing cannabis as a replacement for opioids, as well as carrying out their own studies and investigations on the effects of medical cannabis on patients.
Now South Africa have launched a large-scale trial, the first of its kind on the continent, after initial findings have shown some promised for the treatment to replace traditional painkillers.
A thousand participants who have been using opioids for at least three months, for their pain management, will be asked to switch to cannabis as an alternative for the purposes of the study.
A ground-breaking trial for South Africa
The Pharma Ethics Observational Study is led by Biodata, a subsidiary of Labat Africa, and will research whether cannabis can substitute opioids in addressing the symptoms of chronic pain conditions.
Dr. Shiksha Gallow heads up Biodata as the principal research associate, and works as a cannabis clinician, in the trial that required 18 months of hard work to receive government approval.
Researchers expect that the ground-breaking trial will provide data and a wider overall view of how genetics are interlinked with patient outucomes when taking medical cannabis.
South Africa: Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain Trial Very Promising
Dr Gallow told Cannabiz Africa: “We are currently recruiting patients, and data-capturing all the questionnaires and feedback from the patients for the live Study. It has been relatively slow. However, more options have been introduced, as suggested by the patients in the pilot study.
“The pilot results of the study were very promising, as it showed 98 per cent of the patients have some sort of pain relief from the cannabis.
“We were able to wean these patients off their opioid treatment. In the pilot group of patients below the age of 55, it was shown this group preferred to smoke cannabis and patients older than 55 years preferred oil. The patients who smoked the cannabis had relief almost immediately, while the oil took some time to alleviate their pain.”
“Once we reach the sample size required and all of the relevant data has been collated, the results of the study will be published. We have currently renewed this study for another year, due to the initial slow uptake of research participants.”
Labat is augmenting its imprint on the market over the next few months with the introduction of CannAfrica kiosks in prominent shopping centres. The company believes these will be the “ideal locations for physical sign-up points for the study”.
