Chronic pain – meaning persistent pain of three months or more – is a common symptom of many debilitating conditions. It is estimated that some 25 million people across the UK country live with it in some form, and around five to eight million people deal with severe chronic pain.
However, increasingly, there is evidence that medical cannabis is a natural and less harmful alternative to pharmaceutical painkillers for long term of pain management.
In Manchester, the city’s industrial and manufacturing past have caused some areas of the city to have higher levels of musculoskeletal conditions – which are the most likely kind of chronic pain issue to force people out of work.
Some of Manchester’s suburbs are also among the more deprived areas of the country, and these places are more likely to have higher populations of chronic pain patients and even opioid use. Legal medical cannabis has been shown to be effective in treating pain and reducing opioid use – so how is it looking for access in Manchester?
Industrial Legacy and Chronic Pain in Retired Workers
Chronic pain presents across demographics, but is more likely to occur in retired people who worked physical jobs. It is estimated that around 60% of over 65s in Britain deal with some kind of chronic pain.
Deprivation and poverty is also linked to increased risk of developing chronic pain conditions. One recent study found people in the least deprived areas of the UK were around half as likely to develop chronic pain issues as those in the most.
Increased access to services such as a medical cannabinoids dispensary, could help people avoid a potential cycle of pain and poverty. Although by no means a cure all, medical cannabis has been scientifically proven as a viable and less harmful alternative to opioids for long-term pain.
It has also shown promise as a holistic treatment for chronic pain. Instead of just bluntly blocking the pain receptors, medical cannabis treatment from a registered clinic can help patients come to more manageable mental outlook on their pain.
Around one million people across the country currently treat their ongoing chronic pain with opioids, although the NHS has recently taken steps to decrease that.
In fact, around 500,000 fewer people than five years ago now use opioid medications for chronic pain – but there are still over a million people regularly prescribed them. Over that time, around 50,000 people have started treating with medical cannabis in the UK, with a majority of them doing so for chronic pain.
In Manchester, areas like Fallowfield, Moss Side, Longsight and North Oldham have both higher rates of poverty and deprivation than the national average, as well as rates of chronic pain and opioid usage.
These combined lead to higher unemployment and long term economic inactivity, which can compound the problems. Isolation, purposelessness and hopelessness caused by long-term pain can also lead to chronic depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.
The Opioid Burden and Cannabis’ Promise as an Alternative
When it comes to long term pain, medical cannabis has been proven by meta studies (studies of studies) to substantially improve self-reported patient symptoms while causing less harmful side effects than opioids.
In fact, in one study of new patients presenting with chronic pain for the first time, those given medical cannabis were far less likely (around two times less so) to ask their doctor to discontinue treatment because of side effects than those given opioid pharmaceuticals.
For example, opioids have historically been prioritised as pain relief because they are almost universally effective in the same way for the majority of people. However, different medical cannabis strains can have subtly different effects for different people – something that clinicians understand and can discuss with prospective patients when choosing the right treatment.
Medical cannabis allows individually formulated treatment plans that are to an extent tailored to each patient’s exact medical needs.
Medical cannabis is also less addictive than opioids. Although the science is still being debated on the exact extent of cannabis’ habit-forming tendencies, almost all pharmacology experts agree that opioids are far more addictive and damaging to long-term health. And that is without looking at controlled medical cannabis treatment with clinically prescribed dosages, such as is available in the UK today.
How Patients in Manchester Can Access Medical Cannabis Today
In fact, as well as being demonstrably similarly effective as pharmaceutical opioids in treating long term pain, cannabis has even shown promise in treating patients going through withdrawals from illicit street opioid use. Which anyone who has been through Manchester city centre in recent years, continues to be as visible a problem as it is many British cities.
If medical cannabis is as effective as the science is increasingly saying it is, this could reduce the medical and societal burden of opiate use and chronic pain considerably. However, in Manchester, and in the rest of the UK, medical cannabis is currently only really available through private clinics.
Despite being legal since 2018, the National Health Service has prescribed medical cannabis less than a dozen times in seven years. The vast majority of the 60,000 medical cannabis patients in the UK are doing so through private clinics. Prospective patients in Manchester can access some 30+ choices in this field right now, as long as they meet the requirements.
Featured Image credit: Bazoom
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