Kaskie Brian, Kang Hyojung, Bhagianadh Divya, Bobitt Julie
College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
Brain Sci. 2021 Apr 23;11(5):532. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11050532.
Although researchers have identified medications that relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), none are entirely effective and some persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) use alternatives. Our study compared cannabis use among PwMS (N = 135) and persons diagnosed with arthritis (N = 582) or cancer (N = 622) who were age 60 and older, enrolled in the State of Illinois Medical Cannabis Program, and invited to complete a survey fielded between June and September, 2019. We used logistic regression to identify significant differences in self-reported effects of cannabis on psychological wellbeing, quality of life, and three behavioral outcomes, and we also considered effects of past year opioid use relative to these outcomes. We found that the majority of individuals from all groups used cannabis to address pain and improve quality of sleep. While PwMS reported lower baseline levels across all five outcomes, we found that the reported effects of cannabis were largely comparable across the groups. We also found that cannabis benefitted persons with sleep and digestive issues regardless of condition, whereas persons who used opioids in addition to cannabis were less likely to experience an improvement in any of the outcomes. This comparative evaluation suggests that cannabis' effects are not specific to MS, arthritis, or cancer as much as they impact processes common among these distinct conditions. We also found evidence that cannabis may be a viable alternative to opioids for those with these conditions and experiencing pain.
尽管研究人员已经确定了能够缓解多发性硬化症（MS）症状的药物，但没有一种药物是完全有效的，一些多发性硬化症患者（PwMS）会使用替代方法。我们的研究比较了60岁及以上、参加伊利诺伊州医用大麻计划并被邀请在2019年6月至9月期间完成一项调查的多发性硬化症患者（N = 135）、被诊断患有关节炎的人（N = 582）或癌症患者（N = 622）使用大麻的情况。我们使用逻辑回归来确定大麻对心理健康、生活质量和三种行为结果的自我报告影响中的显著差异，并且我们还考虑了过去一年使用阿片类药物相对于这些结果的影响。我们发现，所有组中的大多数人使用大麻来缓解疼痛并改善睡眠质量。虽然多发性硬化症患者在所有五个结果上的基线水平较低，但我们发现大麻报告的影响在各群体中大致相当。我们还发现，无论病情如何，大麻对有睡眠和消化问题的人有益，而除了大麻还使用阿片类药物的人在任何结果上改善的可能性较小。这种比较评估表明，大麻的作用并非特定于多发性硬化症、关节炎或癌症，而是更多地影响这些不同病症中常见的过程。我们还发现有证据表明，对于患有这些病症并经历疼痛的人来说，大麻可能是阿片类药物的一种可行替代品。
