A new study on the impacts of medical marijuana on older adults finds that cannabis-based products may provide multiple therapeutic benefits for the demographic, including for health, well-being, sleep and mood.
Authors also observed “sizable reductions in pain severity and pain interference among older aged patients [reporting] chronic pain as their primary condition.”
The research, published this week in the journal Drugs and Aging, is meant to address what authors call “a general paucity of high quality research” around cannabis and older adults “and a common methodological practice of excluding those aged over 65 years from clinical trials” at a time when older patients are increasingly turning to medical marijuana for relief.
“International evidence that older individuals may be the fastest-growing increase in the use of medical marijuana, coupled with their frequent exclusion from controlled trials, indicates a growing need for real-world evidence to assess the effectiveness and safety of these drugs for older individuals,” the paper says.
Hellbound and Down 