New clinical trial shows cannabis-based oil improved chronic low back-pain
September 30, 2025
An experimental cannabis extract reduced low back pain in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in Europe, and Canadian doctors say it’s the type of well-designed study they’ll need to guide patients seeking safer medication options.
In Monday’s issue of the journal Nature Medicine, a clinical trial of 820 adults with chronic low back pain showed a cannabis extract in sesame oil called VER-01 offered more relief of pain intensity compared to those who received a placebo.
Low back pain is a common ailment, often stemming from muscle and joint injuries resulting from lifting and twisting. When the pain lasts for more than three months, doctors consider it chronic.
Chronic back pain is treated with a combination of education, medication and rehabilitation like physiotherapy exercises, pain clinicians say.
New research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that patients with lower back pain who took a cannabis-based drug experienced modest pain relief. The drug appears not to be addictive or have serious side effects — a change from many of the current options. Doctors say the finding is a step toward showing the medical potential of cannabis.
Need for new pain relievers
Doctors say it’s important to look for new pain relievers for chronic pain.
That’s because long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs, like ibuprofen in Advil, can have side effects such as ulcers, bleeding and an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes.
As well, doctors overprescribing opioids such as OxyContin for chronic pain helped spark the opioid crisis, which led to an overwhelming number of addiction cases and deaths in North America.
Today, Canadian physicians don’t readily prescribe opioids for chronic, non-cancer pain, said Dr. Hance Clarke, the director of pain services at Toronto General Hospital who also heads the Canadian Pain Society.
A safe, non-inhalational form of cannabis could be a helpful alternative for Canadians suffering from chronic pain, Clarke said, adding the field needs evidence from trials like this to move forward.
“When I read the paper, I said, ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for,’ ” he said.
About half of the 800 participants in the trial in Germany and Austria got the oil, which included tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major active ingredient in cannabis that can make you feel high. The other half got a placebo.
“Really, this study shows that THC is quite helpful when it comes to neuropathic symptoms and back pain outcomes long term,” Clarke said.
Drop in pain reported
After 12 weeks, those receiving the oil with TCH reported their pain dropped by 1.9 points on average, while the placebo group saw a drop of less than one point.
That difference might not sound like much, but study co-author Dr. Winfried Meissner says it’s on par with current pain medications. This means it could become another option in the tool-kit for pain relief.
“A number of patients experienced … 30 per cent or 50 per cent reduction of pain,” Meissner said in an interview, adding that those with burning, tingling or shooting nerve pain felt the most relief.
Side-effects included dizziness, headache, fatigue and nausea and led to more than 17 per cent of people discontinuing the drug early.
The Dose24:29How can I manage chronic back pain?
Millions of people around the world suffer from chronic back pain everyday, often not knowing if they’ll ever recover. Pain specialist Dr. Brenda Lau offers advice on how you can manage chronic back pain, as well as some of the newer treatment options that can offer relief.
For transcripts of The Dose, please visit: lnk.to/dose-transcripts. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. For more episodes of this podcast, click this link [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dose/id1498259551].
Researchers said that dropout rate was lower than what’s typically reported with opioids, which can cause constipation, nausea, drowsiness and carry risks of addiction.
Vertanical, the Germany-based company that owns VER-01, sponsored the clinical trial and said participants taking the drug didn’t show any signs of drug abuse, dependence or withdrawal.
What’s next
Vertanical has filed an application to have its drug approved by European regulators.
The company says it is working with regulators to design a study to support approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Health Canada would also need to approve the medication before it could be prescribed here.
Clarke, the pain specialist, says the trial offers direction in terms of medical benefits and notes that similar trials involving cannabis are now planned in Canada for osteoarthritis pain.
“Canada had a head start in this space, but once we went the recreational route, this science side fell off,” he said.
Jason Busse, a professor in the department of anesthesia at McMaster University who reviews cannabis pain literature, concluded the pain-relieving effects in the new study were modest.
Sleep and physical functioning are related to pain and also affect patients’ quality of life. In the study, participants taking VER-01 also reported better sleep and ability to do physical tasks like climb stairs, lift groceries or bathe.
New research suggests treating acute pain with anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could have an unintended effect: increasing the chances of developing chronic pain.
But Busse said the researchers didn’t clearly specify how much those measures improved in those taking the drug compared to those who received the placebo.
“I think there are some patients that are going to benefit to a degree that is important, but this paper doesn’t allow you to understand what that proportion is for physical function or for sleep quality,” he said.
Longer-term follow up will be important, too, Busse said, given that some patients take medications for years and even decades, not just months as in the trial.
Search
RECENT PRESS RELEASES
Related Post
