A newly published study on cannabis as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) finds that medical marijuana—especially non-flower formulations—”represent a cost-effective adjunctive therapy for moderate PTSD under various reimbursement scenarios.”
The findings indicate that given certain assumptions about the efficacy and cost of medical cannabis for PTSD, it would be worthwhile for health insurance providers and other healthcare payors to include coverage of marijuana alongside other standard forms of treatment.
“This article suggests that, for the vast majority of types of products, there is pretty solid evidence that medical cannabis is cost-effective,” lead author Mitchell Doucette told Marijuana Moment, “meaning that…adding these items to [patients’] drug formulary would be advantageous for not only the patient—because of the lowering of the cost—but also advantageous for health insurance.”
The study, published in the journal Clinical Drug Investigation, says that products such as edibles, oral solutions and tablets “consistently demonstrated cost-effectiveness” under a standard model of insurers’ willingness to pay.
The five-person research team from Leafwell, a company that helps patients obtain medical cannabis cards, drew on efficacy findings from a 2022 study on the efficacy of marijuana for PTSD as well as prices from Curaleaf, one of the largest multi-state cannabis operators in the country.
“Our findings suggest that medical cannabis may be a cost-effective adjunct to standard care for patients with moderate PTSD,” authors wrote, “particularly when payor reimbursement partially or fully offsets treatment costs.”
As nearly all patients in the U.S. have discovered, health plans don’t always cover full medical costs. Medical marijuana patients currently pay for cannabis themselves, without reimbursement or cost-sharing from medical plans. The study says that given the apparent utility of the substance as a PTSD treatment, medical marijuana is a worthwhile investment for health insurers even if they cover costs in full.
Notably, that finding applies only to non-flower medical cannabis formulations. Because cured flower was more expensive than edibles, tinctures or tablets, the analysis only found it to be a cost-effective treatment when payors covered it at lower amounts—50 percent to 75 percent, depending on the type of flower.
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