Bonn-Miller Marcel O, Babson Kimberly A, Vandrey Ryan
Center for Innovation to Implementation and National Center for PTSD, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA; Center of Excellence in Substance Abuse Treatment and Education, Philadelphia VAMC and Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2014 Mar 1;136:162-5. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.12.008. Epub 2013 Dec 31.
The use of cannabis for medical purposes is proliferating in the U.S., and PTSD is an explicitly approved condition for accessing medical cannabis in 5 states. Prior research suggests that people with PTSD often use cannabis to help cope with their condition, and that doing so results in more frequent and problematic cannabis use patterns. Specific coping motivations, such as sleep improvement, among medical cannabis users, have not been examined.
The present study evaluated specific coping use motivations, frequency of cannabis and alcohol use, and mental health among a convenience sample of patients (N=170) at a medical cannabis dispensary in California.
Those with high PTSD scores were more likely to use cannabis to improve sleep, and for coping reasons more generally, compared with those with low PTSD scores. Cannabis use frequency was greater among those with high PTSD scores who used for sleep promoting purposes compared with those with low PTSD scores or those who did not use for sleep promoting purposes.
Consistent with prior research, this study found increased rates of coping-oriented use of cannabis and greater frequency of cannabis use among medical users with high PTSD scores compared with low PTSD scores. In addition, sleep improvement appears to be a primary motivator for coping-oriented use. Additional research is needed to examine the health consequences of this pattern of cannabis use and whether alternative sleep promoting interventions (e.g. CBT-I) could reduce the reliance on cannabis for adequate sleep among those with PTSD.
在美国，大麻用于医疗目的的情况日益增多，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）在5个州是明确批准可使用医用大麻的病症。先前的研究表明，患有创伤后应激障碍的人经常使用大麻来帮助应对自身状况，而这样做会导致更频繁且有问题的大麻使用模式。医用大麻使用者中诸如改善睡眠等特定的应对动机尚未得到研究。
本研究评估了加利福尼亚一家医用大麻药房的患者便利样本（N = 170）中特定的应对使用动机、大麻和酒精使用频率以及心理健康状况。
与创伤后应激障碍得分低的人相比，得分高的人更有可能使用大麻来改善睡眠，以及更普遍地出于应对原因使用大麻。与创伤后应激障碍得分低的人或不用于促进睡眠目的的人相比，为促进睡眠目的使用大麻的创伤后应激障碍得分高的人使用大麻的频率更高。
与先前的研究一致，本研究发现，与创伤后应激障碍得分低的医用大麻使用者相比，得分高的人以应对为导向使用大麻的比例更高，且使用大麻的频率也更高。此外，改善睡眠似乎是应对导向型使用的主要动机。需要进一步研究来考察这种大麻使用模式对健康的影响，以及替代性的促进睡眠干预措施（如失眠认知行为疗法）是否可以减少创伤后应激障碍患者为获得充足睡眠而对大麻的依赖。
