Articles related to CANNABIS/MARIJUANA

This brief editorial introduces a series of articles describing the medical use of hallucinogens, ketamine, marijuana, and other agents — including the legal and ethical perspectives — in the treatment of various neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

A multi-variate analysis published in Cancer Medicine, which includes a population of more than 150,000 individuals, suggests that prior cannabis use was associated with a reduced risk of renal cell carcinoma and bladder cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. A potentially conflicting finding was increased risk of some cancers in current cannabis users.

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.