What Drives Patients to Use Medical Marijuana: Mostly Chronic Pain

What Drives Patients to Use Medical Marijuana: Mostly Chronic Pain

Published on 2/3/19

Cannabis has become one of the most famous plants on the planet in recent years, grabbing headlines for many different reasons and medicinally improving the lives of many thousands of people in over 30 states all around the United States, but there is still some opposition to those who aren't sure of the reason many patients were given or want a recommendation. A study from the University of Michigan was published this month in Health Affairs that analyzes states' medical marijuana registry data to discover how many different ailments patients are being prescribed medical cannabis for and which have the most compelling evidence for successful treatment via cannabis. The study found that chronic pain, nausea, vomiting because of chemotherapy and multiple sclerosis saw the most improvement due to the medical marijuana treatments. Though not every state collected complete data on patients, of the available date it showed that over 85% of patients were given a recommendation for medical marijuana for evidence based conditions, 62% of which were specifically for chronic pain.

This research provides support for legitimate evidence-based use of cannabis that is at direct odds with its current drug schedule status, notes Boehnke. This is especially important as more people look for safer pain management alternatives in light of the current opioid epidemic.

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