Grant: CIHR Fellowship

With the legalization of cannabis (marijuana) across Canada and many US states, more people are using it to manage health conditions. Pain is the most common motivation for medical cannabis use. Experimental and clinical studies show that cannabis' main psychoactive molecule (THC) promotes pain relief in humans, but more research is needed to develop cannabis-based pain management strategies that are safe and effective for patients. Recent research suggests that cannabis' pain-relieving and adverse (i.e., potential for abuse and dependence, known as "abuse liability") outcomes could be influenced by several patient experiences and characteristics including biological sex, psychosocial traits (e.g., exposure to trauma or stress at a young age, impulsivity, anxiety, depression), and history of cannabis use (e.g., the age someone was when they started using cannabis, the typical dose and frequency they use). My research aims to explore the complex relationships between these characteristics and cannabis' pain-relieving and adverse outcomes. First, using data obtained from computer- and interviewer-administered assessments, I will identify "baseline" relationships between sex, psychosocial exposures, cannabis use patterns, and markers of problematic cannabis use among people enrolled in an experimental cannabis study. Then, by administering THC (in placebo, low, and high doses) to these individuals in the lab, I will determine how their sex, psychosocial traits, and cannabis use histories influence THC's pain-relieving and abuse liability effects. I will use a variety of statistical methods to answer these questions. Findings from this research will help us better understand which patient characteristics predict therapeutic and adverse outcomes associated with cannabis use for pain, allowing us to improve clinical guidance around cannabis-based pain management.