Washington State Gets $7.5M to Study Kratom and Chronic Pain
/By Crystal Lindell
Just as federal, state and local governments look to ban various forms of kratom, researchers at Washington State University are getting $7.5 million to study how it impacts chronic pain.
The grant is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services – ironically the same agency that wants to ban concentrated forms of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and other kratom alkaloids.
The money will be used to study how kratom works, its risks, and its impact on sleep and quality of life for those suffering from chronic pain.
Mary Paine, PhD, a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in WSU’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, will lead the project. Her team will also work with researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Natural product chemists in North Carolina will select and authenticate a pure form of kratom, without the additives and compounds often added to kratom-derived products.
Then scientists at Arizona and WSU will conduct studies on laboratory mice. After that, Paine’s group and colleagues in the WSU Sleep and Performance Center plan to conduct a sleep study on humans with chronic low back pain.
Paine said it’s important to study chronic pain treatments.
“There’s a vicious cycle between chronic pain and a cascade of negative effects, including poor sleep, anxiety, reduced quality of life and other problems,” she said in a press release. “That’s why it’s important to do this work — it could potentially help tens of millions of people in this country and billions of people worldwide.”
The NIH also recently announced plans to fund a Phase One clinical study to see if the kratom alkaloid mitragynine could be used to treat opioid addiction.
It’s great to see real efforts to study kratom. But the news is bittersweet in that it’s a reminder that when 7-OH and other kratom derivatives become illegal Schedule One controlled substances, perhaps in the next few weeks, research about them will become illegal under federal law.
“When a temporary order is issued, it will impose the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis with, or possess) or propose to handle 7-hydroxymitragynine and/or mitragynine pseudoindoxyl above the specified threshold.”
The federal scheduling of 7-OH and other kratom alkaloids will apparently not affect research into kratom leaf. For her part, Paine seems to be taking an open-minded approach to kratom in general, which is refreshing to see.
“I understand that the reason for banning it is to prevent harm to people, and I’m all for it not being sold to children or teenagers, not unlike alcohol and cannabis,” Paine said. “But the science has lagged behind and some decisions are being made without having concrete, definitive scientific evidence.”
Paine has also conducted research to see how kratom interacts with oxycodone and other medications. This is how she describes kratom’s effects.
“If you take kratom at lower doses, it acts like a stimulant, but at higher doses, it acts like an opioid,” Paine said.
As a kratom user myself, that’s not exactly my experience with the plant, especially in its natural leaf form. To me, it acts more like a strong cup of coffee mixed with a very mild opioid, even at low doses. In my experience, it’s difficult to use higher doses of kratom, because it stops working as well. There seems to be a natural ceiling built into it, similar to caffeine.
Hopefully, research will continue into kratom leaf, helping us better understand the potential medical uses of the kratom plant and how it impacts users.
