Dr. Lillian Gelberg, a health policy and management professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the lead author of a new study that examined the incidence and consequences of marijuana use among patients in an extensive California healthcare system. About one in six patients, or 17%, acknowledged consuming marijuana consistently, according to the study, with many of them citing health reasons. This study shows that there is a big communication gap in cannabis usage between patients and their primary care physicians.
It has become apparent through these studies that some patients will not inform their doctors of their marijuana usage for various reasons. “Patients may not tell their primary care providers about their cannabis use, and their doctors may not ask about it,” Dr. Gelberg said in a UCLA news release. This communication breakdown is a lost chance to improve the rapport between the physician and the patient and better control medical symptoms.
The legal restrictions on marijuana have gone considerably down over the last few years, with more people accepting its health benefits. At the moment, cannabis is legal for medicinal use in 38 states, three US territories, and the District of Columbia. 24 Of the 38 states also allow recreational usage of marijuana. The downside of this is that people fear the mental consequences of cannabis now since it has gotten considerably stronger with the growing recreational acceptance.
The US Preventive Services Task Force suggested in 2022 that doctors regularly test their patients for cannabis usage in light of these worries. In the research, roughly 176,000 individuals registered in the UCLA Health system had their medical data examined by Gelberg’s team. Patients were required to fill out surveys concerning their cannabis usage during pre-appointment check-ins.
Approximately 30,000 patients gave the researchers information indicating they had used marijuana at least once in the preceding three months. Over 33% of these users had a cannabis use disorder classified as moderate- to high-risk. There was variation in the amount of cannabis used: 40% of users reported using it once or twice in the previous three months, followed by 17% monthly, 25% weekly, and 19% daily or almost daily.
There was variation in the ways that people consumed cannabis; 64.7% of users consumed it as edibles, whereas 65% of users inhaled it. When asked why they smoked marijuana, a sizable majority (76%) said that they did so to treat medical conditions. In particular, 37% utilized it for pain treatment, 56% for sleep, and 56% for stress or mental health issues. It’s interesting to note that the majority of recreational users said they occasionally used marijuana to treat medical problems.
The study, published on June 5 in the journal JAMA Network Open, highlights the importance of healthcare organizations regularly screening all primary care patients for cannabis use. While these results are unique to California, a state that has long legalized cannabis, Dr. Gelberg’s team pointed out that they underscore an essential factor for medical professionals in various geographic areas.
There is a solid chance that this data was gathered at a high point in cannabis usage, as this information comes from the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many people staying at home were using cannabis more to pass the time and make the pandemic less enjoyable or to use it to diminish the symptoms of COVID-19. This does not change the fact that health professionals still need to have a conversation on the medicinal usage of cannabis.
