BOSTON, Mass. — Medical marijuana fails to improve symptoms of pain, anxiety, and depression — while increasing the risk that patients will develop an addiction to cannabis, a new study warns. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital add that up to one in five users may develop cannabis use disorder (CUD).
The findings come from a review of medical marijuana card holders in the United States. A growing number of states now allow the use and sale of medical marijuana to help alleviate the symptoms of conditions including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and the side-effects from chemotherapy.
“There have been many claims about the benefits of medical marijuana for treating pain, insomnia, anxiety and depression, without sound scientific evidence to support them,” says Professor Jodi Gilman in a media release.
“In this first study of patients randomized to obtain medical marijuana cards, we learned there can be negative consequences to using cannabis for medical purposes. People with pain, anxiety or depression symptoms failed to report any improvements, though those with insomnia experienced improved sleep.”
Those with anxiety or depression were most vulnerable to CUD, a discovery Prof. Gilman describes is “particularly disturbing.” The team notes that these are also the most common conditions patients seek a medical cannabis prescription to treat.
Does the medical marijuana prescription system need an overhaul?
The findings suggest the need for stronger safeguards over dispensing and tracking of patients, the MGH team says. In the U.S., medical cannabis cards require written approval of a licensed doctor who is typically not the patient’s primary care provider. They may provide authorization with only a cursory examination, no recommendations for alternative treatments, and no follow-up. In fact, the industry functions outside regulatory standards that apply to most fields of medicine.
In the trial, Prof. Gilman and colleagues recruited 269 adults from Boston interested in obtaining an MMC. Study authors split the participants into two groups, with one having access to marijuana immediately and the second having to wait — acting as a control. Over the next 12 weeks, the risk of developing CUD nearly doubled among the people getting immediate access to medical marijuana.
By the end of the trial, doctors diagnosed one in 10 with addiction. That number rose to 20 percent among participants seeking a card for anxiety or depression.
“Our study underscores the need for better decision-making about whether to begin to use cannabis for specific medical complaints, particularly mood and anxiety disorders, which are associated with an increased risk of cannabis use disorder,” Prof. Gilman says.
“There needs to be better guidance to patients around a system that currently allows them to choose their own products, decide their own dosing, and often receive no professional follow-up care.”
The study findings are published in JAMA Network Open.
South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.
You have to ask yourself who paid for this “research”.
Marijuana is America’s largest cash crop. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry.
If they wanted to run a good study (read: this is NOT), they could totally afford to do so. Not only that but “generic” drugs are studied all the time outside of research paid for by their manufacturers, just look at the generics studied for COVID: ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, dexamethasone, fluvoxamine (obviously the last 2 were the only ones that panned out, but they were still WELL STUDIED).
I support full legalization but I have serious doubts about marijuana’s efficacy as a medication for just about anything. For my part I think it’s just as likely the people using it for pain, anxiety, and depression are just recreational users satisfying their cravings and not dealing with their issues… still better than alcohol and opiates by a massive margin.
I don’t get the impression that any commenter here has actually read the study.
…Or maybe even read the full article.
I like to say, different strains for different pains. 😉
God has made these plants to help with healing the body. Some abuse, some use. It’s personal. About as personal as my deuces.
I have a complex auto immune disease, and I not only use MJ, but I use numerous natural supplements to help curb the ailments.
If any of you have ever heard of norolidol, you should try an oil named Devils Club. Despite that deceiving name, it’s actually very potent in its healing effects. It’s not well know but I buy mine from a guy in Alaska. When I don’t take it I can feel more pain. The active compound is a relative of marijuana. It’s a plant in southeast Alaska. And other places around there also.
Check it out if you want. Good product.
http://www.southeastdevilsclub.com
Oh, some peeps call MJ the devils lettuce, I like to think of it Jesus’s cabbage. sundae driving on a Monday night. Beootch!! ????
Total crap paid for by your friendly Big Pharma Mafia. I USED to take Klonopin for anxiety- no more. Cannabis. I used to take 200 Mgs. of Morphine Sulfate given to me by the VA DAILY for 10 YEARS straight- daily for chronic pain. No more. Cannabis. Cannabis was created by our Creator to be used by us. WE (me and you) have an ENDOCANNABIOID SYSTEM. Ask your Doctor. Cannabis was CREATED to be used by humanity. Period. Wake up. Stop believing the lies told us.
This study was not funded by “Big Pharma.”
How about focusing on dependence on addictive prescribed pain meds. Those numbers look awful. Then move in to SSRI’s that leave men impotent and studies show to be largely ineffective for moderate depression (Irving Kirsh 2019)
I know for a fact it reduced pain from a major surgery when combined with other pain meds! In my case the pain med was 100 milligrams of Demerol every three hours, but on a scale of one to ten the pain only reduced to level six. After three days I was moved from ICU to a private room. The surgeon came in fifteen minutes later & yanked the chest drainage tube out. The second he left the room I took a joint into the bathroom, stood on the toilet, lit the joint & held it up to the exhaust fan between tokes. I hobbled back to my bed after the joint was done & my pain level had reduced to between zero & one. Not only did it work it worked miraculously well!!!
It may not work as well on a lesser injury like a broken limb, dunno. But on a major surgery like mine, a thorocotomy entry to the plural cavity involving tremendous pain afterwards it was like I said, miraculous.
For another use it is also by far the most effective mood stabilizer I’ve ever used.
As a medical marijuana user for 3 years and counting, (for depression and arthritis) In combination with other non-opioid drugs, I can categorically confirm that I haven’t touched opioids for those entire 3 years, I am able to ride a bike, my joints move more freely and I sleep better now that I don’t have night pain or cramps in my legs. Maybe I’m not the majority, but I know it works for me and my liver thanks me on a daily basis. The study is bull crap, although I do agree that doctor’s should follow up with those patients they prescribe marijuana, it is a drug after all and should be treated like any other, i.e. side effects, unwanted reactions etc.
Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD), huh? So research employees from a medical hospital found that a non-pharma product is useless? In other news: Corporate farmers find growing your own food is dangerous.
“The findings come from a review of medical marijuana card holders in the United States.”
You can pretty much stop there. Not randomized nor controlled. Especially for subjective symptoms like pain and mood disorders, it’s a non-starter.
I’m a family doc practicing in the states. I’m pretty convinced that marijuana is in general detrimental for just about any mental illness. While it’s certainly not as bad as alcohol, the rate of addiction (yes, it’s addictive–if video games can be addictive so can marijuana) and other comorbidity is off the charts. Without a randomized trial however, it’s hard to say if there were addicts before the marijuana or not.
Yes, some patients report they do better on it. However, when dealing with addiction, the addict is generally the LAST person to know they have a problem. They’ll rationalize the heck out of their “medicine,” they’ll say it cures their social anxiety as they stay home alone. They’ll say it cures their pain as they’re using alcohol and prescription pain killers at the same time.
Without randomized trial though, we can’t know for sure. Nor can we know if it’s even ethical to run such a trial. If 20% of randomly picked depressed people will get hooked on marijuana as this article suggests, WE CANNOT RUN THAT STUDY. However as much as I think it’s a bad drug for this purpose, I fully admit we can’t know without a real study.
All that said, I fully support it’s untaxed and unregulated legalization for adults, but that’s separate from the point about it being a medicine.
I have Menieres Disease. Cannabis helps relieve the nausea, retching, and dizzying balance issues. I defy any doctor to tell me it has no merit on my health. I didn’t start using cannabis till I was in my late 40s. If science can cure Menieres disease, I’ll stop cannabis.
One think is certain. It is absolutely great at preventing nausea.
This study is not definitive……and the conclusions are too easily confounded.
Herodotus wrote about cannabis usage by the Scythian peoples of the northeast Black Sea region.
It is clear from Herodotus’ description that cannabis was used as an entheogen…..He described a purification ritual.
We ought to be evaluating cannabis as a tool for mental health. My own experience is that it has the effect of altering personality. I describe it as a breaking of bonds between the many different elements that make up our individual personality.
A number of years ago, various organizations researched this end using much stronger pyschoactives…..
So you pick 270 people, make up a Syndrome, and tell people they have it according to their interviews to their interviews….great science….where are the sleep studies associated with the data? …OMG…and this crap gets published and splashed on all the usual BS News sites…..to advance a Reefer Madness Narrative…. you guys suck
I suffer from chronic pain and tried it for a little while and it did not alleviate the pain at all.
Cannabis does not take away the pain; rather it takes your mind off of the pain providing the benefit.
Alcohol kills 90 million Americans every year. Weed, none.
This shit is ruining America!
Gosh, I guess millions of people throughout history are wrong.
Beware: This website publishes mountains of BS.
It’s a hallucinogen. Duh.
Marijuana cures cancer and smoking it is good for your lungs. The real truth is that drinking large amounts of alcohol cures cancer and promotes good health. Of course that is the dumbest thing anyone would say, but marijuana is a belief system and you you can’t argue with a believer. The fact is that it has a really bad track record for mental health and it’s connection with mental health disorders is well documented, but you don’t want to believe it, because reasoning is not in your skill set.
I can only speak for myself, but I started smoking weed in my mid-teens and quit in my early 20’s. I quit because the high was making me feel paranoid with bouts of anxiety. I also couldn’t sleep, even if I smoked in the daytime. So many pro-pot people get very defensive when there is anything negative about weed. I think this study is legit.