Living in Western Europe. Sativex due to be allowed on prescription here. Opinions from those who have uused,please.

Hi Frankie,

Sativex is not approved or available in the U.S. yet (I believe it is approved in Canada for some conditions).
However, if you google: sativex chronic neuropathic pain you should find several studies and scholarly articles on its effectiveness in treating chronic neuropathic pain.

There has also been some previous discussion of Sativex here on NT. If you go to the Search function and type in Sativex, you can get a list of threads or posts in which it has been discussed/mentioned.

Doc

Hi Frankie

Welcome to the boards, what part of the EU are you from then? The reason I ask is because I'm from Ireland and I've never heard of this drug and I too suffer from neuro pathic pain, all of us here have neuropathic pain and we'd all love to know what it is? I bet I won't be the only one who doesn't know. If you don't mind sharing would you tell us a bit more about the problems you're facing. We're a good bunch here and there's tons of support if and when you need it.
I hope I don't sound too forward.

Take care,

Sophie

Hi Sophie,

Sativex® is one of the first medications derived directly from cannabis. It was developed in the UK by GK Pharmaceuticals, and has been approved there for the longest (mostly for MS-related spasticity), so it should be available to you if you have a condition it's approved for. I could write a lot more here, but I think you can get better/more comprehensive info by googling: sativex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabiximols

Doc

Hi Doc,

Thanks for explaining that for me, I thought it was illegal full stop! I don't have MS thankfully but I have tried the real thing for the pain and not one difference did it make, infact nothing works except for the Stim which I hope to get back in shortly after the original Medtronic one stopped working after a few months.

How are you doing today, okayish I hope?

Sinéad

In that case, Sativex would probably not work for you either, but...
The amounts of different substances in street drugs can vary substantially, which is one of the arguments used against legalizing medical cannabis. Ironically, dispensaries use the same argument for stocking/selling different strains of cannabis. Different strains work differently at controlling pain for different individuals, just as doctors use different mixtures of other pain medications or anti-depressants to help individual patients. It gets complicated.

Patients with MS (or other approved conditions for Sativex, depending on what country they're in) probably shouldn't make a decision/judgment about Sativex based on previous experience with street drugs.

Doc