POTENTIAL TREATMENTS FOR CHRONIC PAIN WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Chronic Pain

Medical Marijuana & Chronic Pain

Chronic pain refers to a situation where an acute disease causes a person pain that persists for longer than it should. The pain may also be because of a healing injury or a pathogenic process that last for months and sometimes may proceed to several years.

Having said that, many people suffer from chronic pain. From estimates, the World Health Organization says over 20% percent of the world’ s population either suffers from severe chronic pain or have chronic pain related problems. Some of the chronic pain related problems include:

l Neck pain

l Chronic fatigue syndrome

l Fibromyalgia

l Back pain

What are the effects of chronic pain?

People who suffer from chronic pain experience many negative effects. They include:

l Costly to treat

People with this problem are likely to spend a lot of money seeking treatment. Estimates from the pharmaceutical industry data reveals that the total cost of treating chronic pain related pain sums up to $13.2 billion.

l It is a major cause for unemployment

People who suffer from chronic pain are likely to lose their job as they become less efficient. This results to lost wages and eventually unemployment follows. In the United States for example, back pain causes over 140 million lose worth of workdays. In addition to that, chronic pain is responsible for both direct and indirect losses that sums up to over $294 billion annually.

To make it more elaborate, the cost of treating chronic pain patients can supersede those of treating AIDS, cancer and coronary artery disease patients all combined.

Is there treatment to chronic pain?

Chronic pain can be treated using opioid narcotics. Examples of these narcotics include Percocet and Vicodin. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen types of analgesics can also serve as a treatment to the condition. There are other ways through which chronic pain can be treated but they are either addictive or they cause many dangerous side effects. Some of these ways include using of opiates and narcotics. Prolonged usage of some of these drugs may cause problems such as kidney damage, stomach bleeding and liver problems.

Marijuana as a cure for chronic pain

If there is one cheaper way of treating chronic pain is by using marijuana. Apart from being affordable, it serves as a natural treatment to chronic with less harmful side effects as compared medicines that were traditionally used to cure the condition. This was further proved true by the research conducted in 1975 where it was determined that THC is an effective pain reliever with minimal side effects. Ever since, more researches and studies have come to the same conclusion.

If you are suffering from chronic pain, you can find more information about how marijuana can help relieve your situation.

Conclusion

Chronic pain is a condition where a person experiences more pain and for longer than necessary. This condition is so critical that it plays a big role in increasing the rate of unemployment. Its treatment is so costly as well and most of the drugs either cause addiction or come with severe side effects. However, marijuana has proved to be cheaper way of treating chronic pain. In addition to that, research has shown that its side effects are not adverse.