Articles related to CANNABIS/MARIJUANA

Treatment resistance affects nearly half of all young people experiencing moderate-to-severe anxiety. In this 12-week open-label trial, patients received add-on CBD after noclinical improvement on therapy with CBT and/or antidepressant medication. There wasa more than 40% reduction in mean OASIS scores and no serious or unexpectedadverse events.

The review, which we covered previously, concluded that “oral, synthetic cannabis products with high THC-to-CBD ratios and sublingual, extracted cannabis products with comparable THC-to-CBD ratios may be associated with short-term improvements in chronic pain and increased risk for dizziness and sedation.”

The editorialists noted that, because of the slow pace of clinical trials, their findings will likely be the best available evidence for some time: “While we await better evidence, we believe that clinicians should meet patients with chronic pain ‘where they are.’ Conventional analgesic medications are effective only in a subset of persons…clinicians can compassionately witness, record, and offer guidance to help patients with chronic pain use cannabis wisely.”

In this cross-sectional study of 586 probands and 698 first-degree relatives, cannabis use disorder and bipolar disorder II in probands were associated with an independent increase in risk of cannabis use disorder in relatives; bipolar disorder I and major depressive disorder in probands were not significantly associated with cannabis use disorder in relatives. The risk of cannabis use disorder was highest among relatives with both familial and individual history of bipolar disorder II.

Cannabis use increases the likelihood that patients will develop several negative health conditions, such as insomnia, anxiety, psychosis, and depression. As such, cannabis use should be prescribed carefully by physicians.

According to an international task force at the virtual PAINWeek meeting, chronic pain patients can be treated with medical cannabis following one of three protocols based on patient characteristics. The recommendations are timely considering the limited clinician knowledge about medical cannabis treatment and the opioid crisis.