It was not too long ago that a healthcare industry skeptical of medical marijuana’s ability to help people dealing with chronic pain could point to a lack of scientific evidence proving cannabis efficacy. But that argument is no longer valid. A growing body of scientific evidence supports medical cannabis as a chronic pain treatment. The latest study only adds to the body.
The study, published in the Pharmacy journal demonstrates that chronic pain patients with a history of medical cannabis consumption for at least a year reported better outcomes based on several criteria. It is an impressive study in that it enrolled more than 5,200 participants.
More About the Study
The study was conducted by a team composed of George Mason University and Leafwell researchers. Their goal wasn’t necessarily to study cannabis efficacy in terms of pain relief. Rather, the researchers wanted to better understand healthcare utilization among chronic pain patients in relation to the therapies they were utilizing to manage their pain.
One of the added benefits of their study was understanding chronic pain patients who utilized medical cannabis treatments. Among the 5,242 enrolled patients, 3,943 had at least one year of cannabis use under their belts. The remaining 1,299 reported no past-year use.
Here is what the study data revealed about the cannabis group:
- A 2.0 percentage point reduction in urgent care visits
- A 3.2 percentage point reduction in monthly emergency room visits
- A significant increase in reported quality of life
Researchers concluded that medical cannabis not only cut down on the amount of healthcare utilization chronic pain patients required, but it also increased their quality of life at the same time. The correlation actually makes perfect sense. People who are feeling better and enjoying an improved quality of life are less likely to access urgent care and emergency medicine.
A First of Its Kind Study
Researchers have been quick to point out that their study is the first of its kind. Other studies have looked at medical cannabis and quality of life. Likewise, past studies have also investigated healthcare utilization among medical cannabis patients. But this was the first study to correlate the two.
The fact that medical cannabis helps patients improve the quality of their lives is a fantastic thing on its own. But knowing that the same patients utilize urgent and emergency care less frequently makes it that much better. Fewer patients accessing urgent and emergency care means less strain on a system that is already overtaxed.
Chronic Pain Is the Big One
Making this study even more important is the fact that chronic pain remains the ‘big one’ among medical cannabis patients. Chronic pain is the top condition cited on medical cannabis car applications. That is certainly the case in Utah, where Salt Lake City’s Beehive Farmacy says that an estimated 85% of all medical cannabis users in the state are chronic pain patients.
Beehive operates two medical cannabis pharmacies: one in Salt Lake City and the other in Brigham City. They say they see their fair share of chronic pain suffers. They also dispense medical cannabis products to PTSD patients, cancer patients, and those suffering with a host of other qualifying conditions.
Like so many others, they acknowledge that medical cannabis critics can no longer claim there is not enough evidence to support medical cannabis, at least where treating chronic pain is concerned. The evidence in support of cannabis as a chronic pain treatment is growing by the day. Every new study that makes it to publication only confirms what chronic pain patients have been saying all along.
