(File photo/ CJME News staff)

By CJME News

U of R team gets NFL funding to study cannabinoids’ effect on concussions, pain management

Feb 3, 2022 | 12:26 PM

The University of Regina’s Dr. Patrick Neary has assembled a team that’s ready for the NFL.

“I consider myself just an old jockstrap, bouncing a basketball and shooting a puck,” Neary said with a chuckle during a conversation Wednesday with the Green Zone’s Jamie Nye. “It’s really, really humbling and I’m very fortunate to be in the position I’m in.”

Neary, an exercise physiologist and professor in the U of R’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, is receiving a grant of $500,000 US from the NFL to examine the use of cannabinoids — the naturally occurring compounds found in the cannabis plant — in the treatment of concussions and for pain management.

His team also received $400,000 of in-kind support from My Next Health Inc., to further delve into the subject.

“For me, the important thing is to put back into the community (and) to put back globally,” Neary said. “How can we do something that’s actually going to help people in a very, very positive way?

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“Professional football, professional hockey, professional sports and contact sports is just the very, very small tip of the iceberg. Of the number of individuals who actually get a concussion in a year, the majority are recreational athletes and recreational people — kids falling off the swings at the playground — and those are the people that we want to really target as well.

“We think there’s going to be a huge trickle-down effect from the data that we find and how we’re actually going to move this forward for the good of humanity.”

Neary has been conducting concussion research for 15 years now. In June, a graduate student noticed the NFL was accepting applications for grants to research concussions and pain management, so Neary decided to put his project forward.

He said the NFL received 106 applications, which eventually were winnowed down to two successful applicants: Neary’s entry and that of a team from the University of California San Diego.

The main cannabinoids are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), and Neary’s team already has found those substances have beneficial effects on the blood pressures of individuals with post-concussion syndrome.

The team’s research now will focus on the effects different CBD/THC formulations have on pain management in those suffering from post-concussion syndrome and chronic pain.

“One of the other aspects of this study — and I think an important one — is we want to see whether or not we can use these particular formulations that My Next Health is going to be providing us to actually reduce opioid addiction,” Neary said. “Let’s shift (treatment) over to cannabinoids and is that a possibility without affecting them adversely?”

Neary’s group, which also involves representatives from the universities of British Columbia and Saskatchewan and the B.C. Children’s Hospital, will start by using football players from the university and junior levels as test subjects.

“Then when we get into the pain management arm of the study, we’re really looking for ex-NHL, ex-NFL (and) ex-CFL players who are in these areas,” Neary said.

“(We hope) they can get involved and go on the different formulations that we’re proposing so that we can take a look at how their bodies, their brains (and) their hearts are actually responding and whether or not we can get them off opioids and the addictive properties thereof.”

Another of the goals is to see if CBD, as an anti-inflammatory, can prevent concussions outright — and Neary is convinced the study will show a reduction in both the number of concussions and their severity.

The first leg of the three-year project is to start in May or June, with preliminary results expected in October or November.