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8 papers
This CDC analysis used the 2019–2021 National Health Interview Survey to estimate how common chronic pain is among U.S. adults. In 2021, about 20.9% of adults (51.6 million people) reported pain on most days or every day for the past three months. About 6.9% (17.1 million people) had high-impact chronic…
Ketamine, an anaesthetic, can reduce chronic pain, especially pain with nerve damage. Low doses give strong pain relief, probably by blocking NMDA receptors. Short infusions tend to help only while the drug is given, but three studies found that longer infusions (4–14 days) produced pain relief lasting up to 3…
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious psychiatric illness that causes functional impairment in many people. While monoaminergic antidepressants have been used to effectively treat MDD, these antidepressants have limitations in that they have delayed onset of action and many patients remain treatment-resistant. Therefore, there is a need to develop…
This 2021 review looks at plant-derived cannabinoids as possible treatments for epilepsy. It focuses on four compounds — CBD, CBDV, Δ9-THCV and CBG — and reviews what is known about how they might work in the brain and what animal and human studies have shown. The authors say there is…
This review found that research on cannabis use in India is limited and often low quality. The authors identified 29 Indian studies (1986–2020) but said most had small, region‑specific samples, included only men, used weak methods, and relied on simple descriptive analyses. National surveys show cannabis use has risen, and…
This paper reported a small, randomized trial of 64 people with treatment-resistant major depression who were given a single intravenous dose of ketamine or a saline placebo. The authors said depression and suicidal thoughts dropped quickly — within an hour — and that benefits lasted up to two months, but…
This systematic review looked at 16 studies of ketamine used to treat adults with depression, covering 2,174 patients. The authors found few clear cases of tolerance or dependence (four patients) and conclude that, overall, ketamine appears relatively safe for depression when given under medical supervision, with careful monitoring and dosing.…
This study looked at 1,139 chronic pain patients in a UK medical cannabis registry and compared those with poor sleep to those without. Both groups reported improvements in pain, quality of life, anxiety, and other measures over 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after starting cannabis‐based medicines. People with sleep…
