Dr. Simon Haroutounian, Cannabinoids for pain: Is effectiveness in the eye of the beholder?

March 2022

Dr. Simon Haroutounian is the Chief of Clinical and Translational Research, Chief of Clinical Pain Research, and an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology for the Washington University Pain Center. Dr. Haroutounian obtained his BSc. Pharm and MSc. Pharm degrees, as well as his Ph.D., from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has completed a Fulbright doctoral fellowship in pain outcomes research at the University of Utah, and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical pain research at the Danish Pain Research Center in Aarhus, Denmark.

He has been involved in numerous studies and initiatives for understanding the mechanisms of cannabinoid-mediated analgesia and synthesizing the evidence of the efficacy and safety of cannabis and cannabinoid-based medicine for the treatment of pain. 

Dr. Haroutounian also serves on the International Association for the Study of Pain’s task force on cannabis and cannabinoid analgesia to systematically examine the evidence on analgesic pharmacology of cannabinoids and preclinical evidence on their efficacy in animal models of injury-related or pathological persistent pain; the clinical efficacy of cannabis, cannabinoids, and cannabis-based medicines for pain; harms related to long-term use of cannabinoids; as well as societal issues and policy implications related to the use of these compounds for pain management.

Previous Webinars

CANCELLED Resat Cinar, BPharm, PhD, MBA

February 13th at 1:00PM MST CANCELLED

Cannabinoid Receptor 1 in Lungs: Driving under the influence of endocannabinoids and cannabinoids towards inflammatory lung diseases

Dr Resat Cinar is a principal investigator and the chief of Section on Fibrotic Disorders at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) since January 2021 […]

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Kevin Boehnke, PHD.

January 9th at 1:00PM MST

Thoughtful approaches to chronic pain and cannabis research

Dr. Kevin Boehnke is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center. Kevin received his doctorate from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences in 2017. He is also a […]

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David Gorelick, MD, PHD.

December 12th at 1:00PM MST

Cannabis-related psychiatric disorders

Dr. David Gorelick earned his bachelor degree in psychology from Cornell University and his medical degree and PhD in pharmacology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After completing his psychiatry residency at UCLA, he remained on the faculty until 1989, when he moved to the NIDA Intramural Research […]

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Kimberly Gwinn, PhD

February 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM MST

Title “Exploring Nematode Interactions with Cannabis”

Kimberly D. Gwinn is a Professor of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee. Her lab currently investigates natural products that are produced by plants and microbes and their uses as medicines and as bio-pesticides. She has also explored the […]

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Kenneth Frost, PhD.

Wed, Nov. 20, 11:00AM MST

Recognizing diseases of hemp grown in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Ken Frost is an Associate Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University. His research and extension program is located at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Hermiston, Oregon, […]

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Joshua Kellogg, PhD.

Wed, Oct. 16, 11:00AM MST

Cannabinoids: From the Plant to the Gut

Dr. Joshua Kellogg is an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, where his lab employs transdisciplinary approaches at the interface of analytical chemistry, chemical biology, natural product chemistry, and molecular biology to further human, plant, animal, and environmental health. His team works to […]

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