Science & Health
Medical Marijuana Significantly Improves Life Enjoyment Among Pain Patients, Study From Minnesota State Officials Shows
Medical marijuana is associated with significant improvements in life enjoyment, general activity and physical wellbeing among Minnesota chronic pain patients, according to a new study from researchers at the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM).
The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Clinical Therapeutics, analyzed data from more than 6,000 chronic pain patients in Minnesota’s medical marijuana program from March 2022 to February 2023. It represents a more narrowly tailored review of medical cannabis patient outcomes that OCM published in a broader report last year.
Researchers at OCM’s Division of Data and Analytics specifically looked at chronic pain patients who reported participating in the cannabis program for at least eight months, assessing the impact of medical marijuana use based on their on pain, enjoyment of life and general activity, or PEG, score.
The latest study iteration also features novel data on product preferences among the pain patient cohort.
“Medical cannabis patients report improvement in pain symptoms after four months.”
“Patients in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program report decreased interference to life enjoyment and general activity from pain symptoms 4 months after starting medical cannabis,” the study found.
Specifically, among pain patients with moderate-to-severe PEG scores at the time of enrolling in the cannabis program, 55 percent reported an improvement in life enjoyment of at least 30 percent within four months of their first purchase. Another 55 percent reported improvements to general activity interference and 41 percent said their pain scores improved.
What stands out about the study isn’t just that symptoms of pain meaningfully improved within four months of medical cannabis use for patients with the intractable condition; it’s also that, even with pain persisting to some extent, marijuana made life more enjoyable and restored patients’ general functionality.
As far as product-specific preferences are concerned, the study authors said high THC:CBD products “were the most commonly purchased in all medical cannabis product categories.” Flower was the most popular product type, followed by vapes and edibles.
However, after adjusting for the number of cannabis transactions among patients, the study determined that “there was no significant difference in reduction of PEG scores between purchasing profiles.”
“Future research on medical cannabis should determine the frequency of use of different products and administration methods to further investigate how cannabis can be used for effective pain management in patients with chronic pain,” it found.
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The top-level report from OCM that regulators released last year also showed that nearly a quarter of patients who were taking other pain relievers reduced the use of those drugs after using medical marijuana.
That’s consistent with a growing body of scientific literature that supported the idea of a substitution effect with marijuana and painkillers, as well as other common pharmaceutical drugs.
Meanwhile, separate state data out of Minnesota that was released in April indicates that, despite concerns from legalization opponents who claimed the policy would lead to skyrocketing use by teens, cannabis consumption by middle and high school students in the state is lower now than it has ever been over the past decade.
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.
