Cargando…

Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic pain in children and adolescents is high. In some patients, it can be severe and refractory to conventional treatment options. There is increasing interest in the use of cannabinoids for therapeutic purposes in children and adolescents. Nabilone, a synthetic can...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sun, Naiyi, Cunha, Natasha, Amar, Shawnee, Brown, Stephen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9707533/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36458026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24740527.2022.2132138
_version_ 1784840721295998976
author Sun, Naiyi
Cunha, Natasha
Amar, Shawnee
Brown, Stephen
author_facet Sun, Naiyi
Cunha, Natasha
Amar, Shawnee
Brown, Stephen
author_sort Sun, Naiyi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic pain in children and adolescents is high. In some patients, it can be severe and refractory to conventional treatment options. There is increasing interest in the use of cannabinoids for therapeutic purposes in children and adolescents. Nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid, is approved in Canada for the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. It can also be used off label for treatment of chronic pain. AIMS: This study aims to characterize the use of nabilone for severe chronic pain in a pediatric population. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients 18 years or younger who were prescribed nabilone for chronic pain in a tertiary multidisciplinary pediatric chronic pain clinic between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2017. RESULTS: During the 4-year study period, we screened the charts of 507 patients and identified a total of 28 patients (5.5%) who were treated with nabilone as part of their chronic pain treatment. Common indications for nabilone treatment include mixed neuropathic/nociceptive pain, abdominal pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity. In all patients, nabilone was prescribed as an adjunctive treatment. Seven patients (25%) reported a slight improvement in pain symptoms. Side effects were reported by 21.4% of patients. The most common reported side effects were sedation and cognitive slowing. CONCLUSIONS: Adjunctive treatment with nabilone may improve pain symptoms in a subset of pediatric chronic pain patients. Further research investigating the long-term safety and efficacy of nabilone in the treatment of chronic pain in children is needed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9707533
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97075332022-11-30 Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents Sun, Naiyi Cunha, Natasha Amar, Shawnee Brown, Stephen Can J Pain Research Article BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic pain in children and adolescents is high. In some patients, it can be severe and refractory to conventional treatment options. There is increasing interest in the use of cannabinoids for therapeutic purposes in children and adolescents. Nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid, is approved in Canada for the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. It can also be used off label for treatment of chronic pain. AIMS: This study aims to characterize the use of nabilone for severe chronic pain in a pediatric population. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients 18 years or younger who were prescribed nabilone for chronic pain in a tertiary multidisciplinary pediatric chronic pain clinic between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2017. RESULTS: During the 4-year study period, we screened the charts of 507 patients and identified a total of 28 patients (5.5%) who were treated with nabilone as part of their chronic pain treatment. Common indications for nabilone treatment include mixed neuropathic/nociceptive pain, abdominal pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity. In all patients, nabilone was prescribed as an adjunctive treatment. Seven patients (25%) reported a slight improvement in pain symptoms. Side effects were reported by 21.4% of patients. The most common reported side effects were sedation and cognitive slowing. CONCLUSIONS: Adjunctive treatment with nabilone may improve pain symptoms in a subset of pediatric chronic pain patients. Further research investigating the long-term safety and efficacy of nabilone in the treatment of chronic pain in children is needed. Taylor & Francis 2022-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9707533/ /pubmed/36458026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24740527.2022.2132138 Text en © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sun, Naiyi
Cunha, Natasha
Amar, Shawnee
Brown, Stephen
Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title_full Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title_fullStr Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title_short Synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
title_sort synthetic cannabinoid for the treatment of severe chronic noncancer pain in children and adolescents
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9707533/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36458026
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24740527.2022.2132138
work_keys_str_mv AT sunnaiyi syntheticcannabinoidforthetreatmentofseverechronicnoncancerpaininchildrenandadolescents
AT cunhanatasha syntheticcannabinoidforthetreatmentofseverechronicnoncancerpaininchildrenandadolescents
AT amarshawnee syntheticcannabinoidforthetreatmentofseverechronicnoncancerpaininchildrenandadolescents
AT brownstephen syntheticcannabinoidforthetreatmentofseverechronicnoncancerpaininchildrenandadolescents