Healthy living
The desired effect
Cannabidiol, or CBD, continues to be marketed as a non-intoxicating substance with a raft of wellness benefi ts. While still only licensed as a treatment for childhood epilepsies and forms of multiple sclerosis, doctors are increasingly experimenting with CBD for pain relief, and as a novel treatment for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Is it a panacea or a lucrative snake oil? Will Moffi tt discusses the potential of this illusive compound with Steven Moore, co- founder of The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI), and Mikael Sodergren, founder of the Medical Cannabis Research Group.
O
ne of the more unfortunate aspects of Mikael Sodergren’s job is that he has to “inflict a lot of pain” on people. As a liver and pancreatic cancer surgeon at Imperial College, Sodergren performs life-saving treatments by removing tumours in the body. Oftentimes, however, these operations, without adequate analgesia, leave his patients in deep pain. As a result, the lack of alternative painkillers has left Sodergren investigating novel methods to help patients cope with their discomfort after operations. “One of my other clinical interests is how we get away from [using] these horrible painkillers, either in the form of epidurals, which we put into patients immediately after operations that really slow them down, or opioids, which have
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a side effect profile that isn’t good after surgery.” Since 2017, Sodergren has been exploring the potential benefits of using medical cannabis, specifically Cannabidiol, or CBD, an active substance in the cannabis sativa plant, as a painkiller, and as an adjuvant therapy to better harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer. To further his research, he established the Imperial College Medical Cannabis Research Group, a cohort of academics and medical specialists devoted to investigating and developing novel cannabinoid therapies for inflammation and pain relief. Although Medical cannabis is widely prescribed in Germany and the USA, it was legalised in the UK in October 2018. Prescriptions remain limited, particularly on the NHS, but by collating data on
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