{"id":26818,"date":"2022-09-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabishealthnews.co.uk\/?p=26818"},"modified":"2022-09-23T17:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:39:17","slug":"medical-cannabis-could-help-tackle-opioid-crisis-says-study-story22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabishealthnews.co.uk\/2022\/09\/28\/medical-cannabis-could-help-tackle-opioid-crisis-says-study-story22\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical cannabis could help tackle opioid crisis, says study"},"content":{"rendered":"
Medical cannabis could be an important alternative to opioids<\/a> when managing pain, a new study of thousands of patients concludes.<\/span><\/p>\n The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal<\/a> Substance Use and Misuse<\/em>, found that people reported being in less pain and could function better physically and socially, after consuming medical cannabis.<\/span><\/p>\n It also found that the majority of those who had been taking oxycodone, codeine and other opioids to treat their pain were able to stop or reduce them as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The results indicate that, used under proper medical supervision, medical cannabis \u2013 cannabis and cannabis-based medicines \u2013 could reduce opioid use in certain individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though more research is needed, experts believe this may help to alleviate the opioid epidemic in the US.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Opioids can be effective painkillers but they are also highly addictive.<\/span><\/p>\n Drug overdose deaths involving opioids (prescription and non-prescription, such as heroin) have increased more than eight-fold since 1999 in the US, with more than 550,000 deaths from 1999 to 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n Although the US is at the centre of the opioid crisis, the issue is an increasing public health concern in other countries, including the UK, Sweden and Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n The use of medical cannabis is now legal in the majority of states in the US and patients are increasingly using it instead of opioids to manage their pain.<\/span><\/p>\n However, research into the viability of substituting medical cannabis for opioids<\/a> is limited.<\/span><\/p>\n To find out more, researchers from Emerald Coast Research, a contract research organisation based in Florida, and Florida State University College of Medicine, carried out a detailed survey of medical cannabis users shortly after its medical use was legalised in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n The 2,183 participants had a range of conditions, including anxiety<\/a> disorders, chronic pain<\/a>, depression, insomnia<\/a> and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)<\/a>.\u00a0 Most were using medical cannabis daily.<\/span><\/p>\n Answers to the 66-question survey revealed that most of the participants (90.6%) found medical cannabis to be very or extremely helpful in treating their medical condition and most (88.7%) said it was very or extremely important to their quality of life.<\/span><\/p>\n Levels of pain improved in 85.9% of participants. Some 84% said that health problems weren\u2019t interfering with their normal social activities as much as before and more than half said physical activities, from housework to running, weren\u2019t as difficult as they had been.<\/span><\/p>\n The majority of participants (68.7%) experienced at least one side-effect, the most common of which were dry mouth, increased appetite and drowsiness.<\/span><\/p>\n Most (61%) of the participants were taking opioids before being prescribed medical cannabis, with many (70.5%) taking them for at least two years.<\/span><\/p>\nThe study<\/h4>\n