A new study on the use of medical marijuana by older patients—age 50 and above—concludes that “cannabis seemed to be a safe and effective treatment” for pain and other conditions.
According to the study, “Most of these patients have experienced significant clinical improvements in their pain levels, quality and sleep and have reduced their co-medication.”
The study, published in Cannabis late last month, evaluated 229 participants from British Columbia and Ontario in Canada with an age average of 66.7. The bulk of participants—around 90 percent—used medical marijuana to treat pain-related conditions, including chronic pain and arthritis. Sixty-two percent of the participants (63.2%) were female.
Most patients preferred to consume cannabis products that are consumed orally (such as extracts or edibles) as opposed with vaporized or smoked cannabis. They also prefer products which contain high CBD levels and low THC.
Cannabis is an effective and relatively cost-effective treatment option for older adults who are dealing with health problems related to age.
In the study, patients were asked to use medical marijuana under the supervision of their health-care provider. They also had to report data on the patient’s pain levels, sleeping patterns, quality of living, adverse reactions, etc.
The report states that “over the course of the study, there were significant improvements in the measures for pain, quality of sleep and life,” with 45% reporting a clinically-meaningful improvement in the scores on sleep and pain.
The study also states that “nearly 50% of patients who were taking co-medications had decreased their use at baseline by the end period of the study,” and “quality of life significantly improved from baseline to the conclusion of the research.” [month three] The baseline is the distance between two points. [month six].”
Noteworthy, there were no reported serious side-effects. Less than 5% of all participants experienced any negative effects. Most commonly, they reported nausea or feeling “too drunk.”
The use of medical cannabis appears to not only improve patient outcomes but also reduce costs.
Authors wrote that among patients who have medication costs in baseline, the “mean month medication cost dropped from $74.10 baseline (SD=$193.30), to $28.70 M6 (SD=$69.50), which represents a $45.40 monthly saving, as well as a 61.3 percent decline in medication costs.
In the article, authors, including Greenly Medical Consulting (Greenly Medical Consulting), the medical cannabis firm Tilray (Tilray) and the University of Victoria stated that this was the “largest longitudinal study of medical cannabis patients older than 50 years old to date.”
Authors wrote that “the results of the multi-site prospective longitudinal study conducted on older medical cannabis users aged 50 years or more indicate cannabis as a safe and effective alternative to prescription drugs for treating chronic pain, insomnia, and conditions linked with ageing.” This, they said, would result in a significant reduction of healthcare costs as well as reducing prescription drug consumption. The use of medical cannabis by older people is on the rise in North America.
In addition to the report, other research has been conducted on cannabis and chronic pain. The results of this new study found that after three months of use marijuana is “comparatively more efficient than prescription drugs” in treating chronic pain. Many patients also reduced their intake of opioid painkillers when using cannabis.
This study was conducted by federal researchers at the National Cancer Institute and supported by Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Academic Clinical Research Program. It was published in late November in the Journal Pain.
The analysis, despite some limitations in terms of methodology, “was able, by using causal inference methods, to determine that the use of medical cannabis for chronic pain, under medical supervision, is at least equally effective, and possibly more effective, in relation to chronic pain patients treated with prescription medication (nonopiod or opioid).
A separate, federally funded study indicated that legalization of marijuana in U.S. states is associated with reduced prescriptions for opioid pain medications among commercially insured adults—indicating a possible substitution effect where patients are choosing to use cannabis instead of prescription drugs to treat pain.
The authors wrote that “these results indicate that the substitution of marijuana for pain medication increases with increased availability of recreational cannabis.” They noted that “there appears to be a slight shift when recreational cannabis is legalized, but that we see better results after users are able to purchase cannabis from recreational dispensaries.”
The paper published in Cannabis explains that “reductions in prescriptions for opioids due to recreational marijuana legalization could prevent opioid exposure in pain patients, as well as lead to a decrease in new opioid users and rates of addiction disorder.”
Another recent study also found a decrease in opioid fatal overdoses when marijuana for adults was legalized. That study found a “consistent negative relationship” between legalization and fatal overdoses, with more significant effects in states that legalized cannabis earlier in the opioid crisis. The authors estimated that legalizing recreational marijuana “is associated” with a reduction of about 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 people.
This report stated that “our findings suggest that broader access to recreational marijuana could help combat the opioid epidemic.” The report stated that “previous research shows marijuana can be used to reduce opioid prescriptions and may reduce overdose death.”
The effect of earlier implementation is greater. [recreational marijuana legalization]It added that this relationship has been relatively constant over time.
Another recently published report into prescription opioid use in Utah following the state’s legalization of medical marijuana found that the availability of legal cannabis both reduced opioid use by patients with chronic pain and helped drive down prescription overdose deaths statewide. The study concluded that cannabis has an important role in the management of pain and reduction of opioid usage.
Yet another study, published in 2023, linked medical marijuana use to lower pain levels and reduced dependence on opioids and other prescription medications. And another, published by the American Medical Association (AMA) last February, found that chronic pain patients who received medical marijuana for longer than a month saw significant reductions in prescribed opioids.
About one in three chronic pain patients reported using cannabis as a treatment option, according to a 2023 AMA-published report. A majority of this group claimed to have used cannabis in place of other pain medicines, including opioids.
Other research published that year found that letting people buy CBD legally significantly reduced opioid prescription rates, leading to 6.6 percent to 8.1 percent fewer opioid prescriptions.
A 2022 research paper that analyzed Medicaid data on prescription drugs, meanwhile, found that legalizing marijuana for adult use was associated with “significant reductions” in the use of prescription drugs for the treatment of multiple conditions.
A 2023 report linked state-level medical marijuana legalization to reduced opioid payouts to doctors—another datapoint suggesting that patients use cannabis as an alternative to prescription drugs when given legal access.
Researchers in another study, published last year, looked at opioid prescription and mortality rates in Oregon, finding that nearby access to retail marijuana moderately reduced opioid prescriptions, though they observed no corresponding drop in opioid-related deaths.
Cannabis may also be effective in treating pain, according to other recent studies.
A report published recently in the journal BMJ Open, for instance, compared medical marijuana and opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and found that cannabis “may be similarly effective and result in fewer discontinuations than opioids,” potentially offering comparable relief with a lower likelihood of adverse effects.
Separate research published found that more than half (57 percent) of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain said cannabis was more effective than other analgesic medications, while 40 percent reported reducing their use of other painkillers since they began using marijuana.
In Minnesota, meanwhile, a new state government report on chronic pain patients enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program said recently that participants “are finding a noticeable change in pain relief” within a few months of starting cannabis treatment.
In a large-scale, nearly 10,000 patient study, nearly one quarter of patients who previously took painkillers reduced their usage after using medical cannabis.
In terms of cannabis and sleep, according to a recent study backed by industry, 16 percent (or more) Americans over 21 use it as a sleeping aid. This makes marijuana more common for sleeping than alcohol or prescription sleep aids (both 12 percent). However, it is still less popular than supplements or over-the counter sleep aids (both 19 percent).
Last year, separate studies found that both older medical marijuana patients as well as people with fibromyalgia reported that cannabis improved their sleep.
A different study last year from the retirement group AARP found that marijuana use by older people in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the last three years, with better sleep as among the most frequently cited reasons.
Another industry-backed survey last year found that an oral CBD solution effectively treated mild to moderate anxiety, as well as associated depression and poor sleep quality, with no serious adverse events observed.
A study published last spring, meanwhile, found that using marijuana before sleep has minimal if any effect on a range of performance measures the next day, including simulated driving, cognitive and psychomotor function tasks, subjective effects and mood.
In 2023, a federally funded study found that people with anxiety experienced better quality sleep on days when they used marijuana compared to days when they used alcohol or nothing at all.
Separate studies in 2019, meanwhile, found that fewer people purchased over-the-counter (OTC) sleep medications when they had legal access to cannabis and that many adult-use consumers at the time said they used marijuana for the same reasons medical cannabis patients did: to help with pain and sleep.
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