96 patients with chronic neuropathic pain received increasing doses of nabilone and dihydrocodeine for 6-week periods in random order with a 2-week washout period. The purpose of the study was to compare the effect of nabilone on pain, quality of life (SF-36), and adverse events to that of dihydrocodeine. The results indicated that dihydrocodeine provided better analgesic effect, SF-36 scores for the "bodily pain" domain and fewer side effects, but scores in the SF-36 domain "role physical" favoured nabilone. Both drugs were well-tolerated, yielded similar psychometric test results, and no severe side effects occurred during the study. Only 64 patients were analyzed per protocol from the 96 originally randomized to treatment, due to withdrawals and non-adherence to treatment.