Table 5.

Characteristics, outcomes and conclusions of controlled studies

Study type; study	Characteristic							Pain outcomes and conclusions*
	Drug	Dose	Route of administration	Frequency of administration	Population	Control	Duration
Randomized controlled trials
Beaulieu 200634	Nablione	1 mg, 2 mg	Oral capsule	Every 8 h	41 major surgery patients (18 orthopedic) using a PCA device	Ketoprofen, placebo	24 h	NRS (−)
Blake et al. 200613	Nabiximols	Mean 14.6 mg THC and 13.5 mg CBD	Oral spray	Daily	58 patients with rheumatoid arthritis with pain not adequately controlled by medication	Placebo	5 wk	NRS, McGill pain (+)
Frank et al. 200835	Nabilone	250 μg escalating to 2 mg	Oral capsule	Daily	96 patients with chronic neuropathic pain (25 orthopedic)	Dihydrocodeine crossover	14 wk	VAS (−)
Kantor and Hopper 198150†	Levonantradol	1.5–3.0 mg	Oral capsule	Once	81 postsurgical patients	Placebo	Unclear	SPID (+)
		0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1.0 mg	Intramuscular
Levin et al. 201724	Nabilone	0.5 mg	Oral capsule	Once	340 postsurgical patients (47 orthopedic) at risk for nausea and vomiting	Placebo	300 min	NRS (=)
Nonrandomized interventional study
Holdcroft et al. 200629	Cannabis extract	5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg	Oral capsule	Once	65 postsurgical patients (23 orthopedic)	Low compared with medium and high doses	6 h	Rescue analgesia, VRS (+) (higher doses better than lower doses)

CBD = cannabidiol; NR = not reported; NRS = numeric rating scale; PCA = patient-controlled analgesia; SPID = sum of pain intensity difference; THC= tetrahydrocannabinol; VAS = visual analogue scale; VRS = verbal rating scale.

^*(+) = cannabis performed significantly better than comparator for pain outcomes; (=) = no difference for pain outcomes; (−) = cannabis performed worse than comparator for pain outcomes.

^†Abstract only.