A few new studies point out that medical marijuana can provide significant benefits for several different health symptoms. These range from chronic pain to insomnia, with minimal negative effects. In line with this, based on patient-reported symptom relief from a new mobile application technology called Releaf App, researchers from The University of New Mexico collected info from the platform to measure real-time cannabis use.
According to a press release, a mobile application called Releaf App is an incentive-free patient educational software program designed to record how individual cannabis usage sessions correspond to immediate changes in symptom intensity levels and experienced adverse effects.
“Observational studies are more appropriate than experimental research designs for measuring how patients choose to consume cannabis and the effects of those choices,” study author Jacob Miguel Vigil, Ph.D., associate professor at UNM Department of Psychology, said in a press release.
The initial study observed cannabis use across 27 different health conditions with symptoms that ranged from seizure disorders to depression among 2830 app users. Based on the results, users said that they had an average symptom reduction of approximately 4 points on a 1 to 10 scale following use of cannabis in its various product forms, from concentrations to topicals.
Higher pre-dosing symptom levels, on average were associated with greater reported symptom relief. The authors also found that users treating anxiety or depression-related symptoms reported significantly more relief than users with pain symptoms.
Sixty percent of users said that they had been experiencing negative effects, which were a result of lessened, yet still significant symptom relief. Negative adverse effects were more likely among patients treating a depressive symptom relative to patients treating anxiety and pain-related conditions, according to the study.
“By collecting massive amounts of patient-centered information on actual cannabis used under real-life circumstances we are able to measure why patients consume cannabis, the types of products that patients use, and the immediate and longer-term effects of such use,” Dr. Vigil added.
In the second study, the authors observed users’ utilization of raw natural cannabis flower, or “buds,” as a treatment for insomnia. Among 409 individuals with a specified condition of insomnia, the authors watched 1056 medical cannabis administration sessions using the Releaf App. Users recorded real-time ratings of self-perceived insomnia severity levels before and following consumption, experienced adverse effects, and product characteristics.
Increasing and widening the use of cannabis for treating symptoms of a number of health conditions, including insomnia, underscores the importance for further medical research regarding its risk-benefit profile and effectiveness as a substitute for other substances, the authors concluded.
“In addition, if the short-term risk-benefit profile of cannabis found in our studies reflects its longer-term therapeutic potential, substitution of the cannabis for traditional pharmaceuticals could reduce the risk of dangerous drug interactions and the costs associated with taking multiple medications by allowing patients to treat a constellation of multiple ailments with a single treatment modality,” Dr. Vigil said.
