Evaluating the Effects of Cannabis Extract on Pain Sensitivity: An Experimental Study using Albino Wistar Rats

The rate at which cannabis has been utilized by youths is becoming alarming and predominants of them who are being asked reported that it helps them to deal with pains. Therefore, the study was aimed at investigating the effect of cannabis extract on pain sensitivity using rat. A total of 24 consisting of 12 male and 12 female albino Wistar rats of weight 100 gm were used in a completely randomized design (CRD) experiment. They were maintained in the animal house unit of the Department of Pharmacy and Toxicology, University of Uyo, Nigeria, at a temperature of 30 ± 2°C and 12 hr light/dark cycles with free access to food and water. Cannabis sativa was purchased with the approval of the office of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State and homogenized using the manual blender. There were three treatments of eights mice each replicated three times with three rats per replicate. Thomas scientific hot plate (author regulated) and Object recognition test were used to test pain sensitivity and memory recognition respectively. The study utilized a pretest-posttest design and the statistics used in analyzing the result in the study was Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Result revealed that Cannabis significantly affects pain sensitivity. Result also revealed that sex significantly affect pain sensitivity. It was therefore concluded that cannabis have significant effect on pain sensitivity. The study recommend that little or low dose of cannabis use with doctors’ supervision may be helpful to people who go through severe pain.