Mahabir V Kishan, Merchant Jamil J, Smith Christopher, Garibaldi Alisha
CB2 Insights, 5045 Orbitor Dr, Building 11, Suite 300, Mississauga, ON, L4W 4Y4, Canada.
J Cannabis Res. 2020 Sep 29;2(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s42238-020-00038-w.
Growing interest in the medicinal properties of cannabis has led to an increase in its use to treat medical conditions, and the establishment of state-specific medical cannabis programs. Despite medical cannabis being legal in 33 states and the District of Colombia, there remains a paucity of data characterizing the patients accessing medical cannabis programs.
We retrospectively reviewed a registry with data from 33 medical cannabis evaluation clinics in the United States, owned and operated by CB2 Insights. Data were collected primarily by face-to-face interviews for patients seeking medical cannabis certification between November 18, 2018 and March 18, 2020. Patients were removed from the analysis if they did not have a valid date of birth, were less than 18, or did not have a primary medical condition reported; a total of 61,379 patients were included in the analysis. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics expressed as a mean (standard deviation (SD)) or median (interquartile range (IQR)) as appropriate for continuous variables, and number (percent) for categorical variables. Statistical tests performed across groups included t-tests, chi-squared tests and regression.
The average age of patients was 45.5, 54.8% were male and the majority were Caucasian (87.5%). Female patients were significantly older than males (47.0 compared to 44.6). Most patients reported cannabis experience prior to seeking medical certification (66.9%). The top three mutually exclusive primary medical conditions reported were unspecified chronic pain (38.8%), anxiety (13.5%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (8.4%). The average number of comorbid conditions reported was 2.7, of which anxiety was the most common (28.3%). Females reported significantly more comorbid conditions than males (3.1 compared to 2.3).
This retrospective study highlighted the range and number of conditions for which patients in the US seek medical cannabis. Rigorous clinical trials investigating the use of medical cannabis to treat pain conditions, anxiety, insomnia, depression and PTSD would benefit a large number of patients, many of whom use medical cannabis to treat multiple conditions.
人们对大麻药用特性的兴趣日益浓厚，这导致其在治疗疾病方面的使用有所增加，并且各地也纷纷建立了特定州的医用大麻项目。尽管医用大麻在33个州和哥伦比亚特区是合法的，但关于使用医用大麻项目的患者特征的数据仍然匮乏。
我们回顾性地审查了由CB2 Insights拥有和运营的美国33家医用大麻评估诊所的数据登记册。数据主要通过对2018年11月18日至2020年3月18日期间寻求医用大麻认证的患者进行面对面访谈收集。如果患者没有有效的出生日期、年龄小于18岁或未报告主要疾病，则将其从分析中排除；共有61379名患者纳入分析。数据使用描述性统计进行总结，连续变量根据情况表示为均值（标准差（SD））或中位数（四分位间距（IQR）），分类变量表示为数量（百分比）。各组间进行的统计检验包括t检验、卡方检验和回归分析。
患者的平均年龄为45.5岁，54.8%为男性，大多数为白种人（87.5%）。女性患者明显比男性年龄大（分别为47.0岁和44.6岁）。大多数患者在寻求医用大麻认证之前就有使用大麻的经历（66.9%）。报告的前三种相互排斥的主要疾病是未明确的慢性疼痛（38.8%）、焦虑症（13.5%）和创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）（8.4%）。报告的合并症平均数量为2.7种，其中焦虑症最为常见（28.3%）。女性报告的合并症明显多于男性（分别为3.1种和2.3种）。
这项回顾性研究突出了美国患者寻求医用大麻治疗的疾病范围和数量。对使用医用大麻治疗疼痛性疾病、焦虑症、失眠、抑郁症和创伤后应激障碍进行严格的临床试验将使大量患者受益，其中许多患者使用医用大麻来治疗多种疾病。
