A prominent review of 20 studies showing cannabis as no better than placebo at treating persistent pain has vindicated Drug Free Australia (DFA) against Channel 7’s ‘Sunday Night’ program in 2019. The program appeared to being trying to discredit the DFA for asserting just such a placebo effect.
The review, published in the highly esteemed Journal of the American Medical Association, is well summarised by the Pain News Network as follows:
“The placebo effect is responsible for much of the pain relief experienced by participants in clinical trials of cannabis, according to new analysis that also found a “strong positive bias” in media coverage of the studies.
“Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden analyzed the results of 20 placebo-controlled studies of cannabis products involving almost 1,500 people with chronic pain conditions. The cannabis products were administered as pills, sprays, oils, smoke or vapor; and most of the studies were conducted in the United States, UK or Canada.
“Researchers found that many participants reported significant pain relief, but there were no differences in pain reduction between those who used cannabis products and those who used a placebo, a sham treatment that should have no effect.”
In Seven’s Sunday Night program, a couple of case studies were aired against Drug Free Australia’s then-evidenced claim that there was a significant placebo effect at play for medicinal cannabis patients. The first was a patient with “stiff person disease”, where Drug Free Australia’s statement affirming cannabis being relatively effective with MS, which may have been relevant, was not put to air. A second patient with Crohn’s disease was also put forward as evidence for the effectiveness of cannabis despite three extant medical journal studies showing conflicting, and thus no conclusive, effect.
The review concludes that the unsubstantiated but high media profile of cannabis as it relates to pain creates very high expectations that drive the very high placebo effect.
Drug Free Australia has invited Channel 7 to highlight this study in a future news feature.
