Risks of harm with cannabinoids, cannabis, and cannabis-based medicine for pain management relevant to patients receiving pain treatment: protocol for an overview of systematic reviews

INTRODUCTION: With the increasing availability of cannabis and cannabinoids and their potential utility for pain treatment, there is a growing need to evaluate the risk-benefit considerations of cannabinoids for the management of pain. As part of the IASP Cannabis and Cannabinoids Task Force, this protocol describes a planned overview of systematic reviews summarizing the risks of harm with cannabinoids that are relevant to patients receiving pain treatment. METHODS: This overview will involve literature searches of several databases and a defined search strategy that will target systematic reviews or meta-analyses of cannabinoids where harms are the primary focus. Data extraction will include various features of the cannabinoid(s) and the harm(s) being studied as well as other methodological features of each included systematic review. Methodological quality of each included review will be assessed using AMSTAR-2 as well as compliance with the PRISMA harms checklist. Prospero registration pending. DISCUSSION: The broad overview of reviews defined by this protocol is expected to synthesize available good quality evidence of harms that will help inform risk-benefit considerations about the use of cannabinoids for pain management.