Lewis Monique, Flood John
Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
J Cannabis Res. 2021 Nov 21;3(1):48. doi: 10.1186/s42238-021-00105-w.
Medicinal cannabis has been legalised for use for a range of specified medical conditions in Australia since 2016. However, the nature of the government regulations and the subsequent complexity of prescribing, as well as doctors' safety uncertainties and the stigma of the plant, remain contributing barriers to patient access. Media representations can offer insights into the nature of the discourse about new medical products and therapies and how ideas and understandings about social phenomena become constructed. Focusing on professional medical publications, this study sought to investigate how medicinal cannabis is being represented in professional medical publications.
Using a content analysis approach, we investigated articles about medicinal cannabis from 2000 to the end of 2019 in the Medical Journal of Australia, Australian Doctor, Medical Observer, Australian Journal of General Practice, Australian Family Physician, and Australian Medicine. Articles were coded according to article type, framings of cannabis, headline and article tone, and key sources used in the article. We also used manifest textual analysis to search for word frequencies, and specific conditions referred to in the articles retrieved.
A total of 117 articles were retrieved for analysis, the majority of which were news stories for a physician audience. Across the longitudinal period, we found that most reports carried a positive tone towards medicinal cannabis. Cannabis is most frequently framed as a legitimate therapeutic option that is complex to prescribe and access, does not have a strong evidence base to support its use, and also carries safety concerns. At the same time, the outlook on cannabis research data is largely positive. Primary sources most frequently used in these reports are peer-reviewed journals or government reports, voices from medical associations or foundations, as well as government and university researchers. Chronic pain or pain were the conditions most frequently mentioned in articles about cannabis, followed by epilepsy, cancer or cancer pain, and nausea and chemotherapy.
This analysis offers evidence that medicinal cannabis is being framed as a valid medicine advocated by the community, with potential for addressing a range of conditions despite the lack of evidence, and a medicine that is not free of risk.
自2016年起，药用大麻在澳大利亚已被合法化用于一系列特定医疗状况。然而，政府法规的性质以及随后处方开具的复杂性，还有医生对安全性的不确定以及该植物所带来的污名，仍然是阻碍患者获取的因素。媒体呈现能够提供关于新医疗产品和疗法的话语性质以及关于社会现象的观念和理解如何形成的见解。本研究聚焦于专业医学出版物，旨在调查药用大麻在专业医学出版物中是如何被呈现的。
采用内容分析法，我们调查了2000年至2019年底发表在《澳大利亚医学杂志》《澳大利亚医生》《医学观察家》《澳大利亚全科医学杂志》《澳大利亚家庭医生》和《澳大利亚医学》上关于药用大麻的文章。文章根据文章类型、大麻的框架、标题和文章基调以及文章中使用的关键来源进行编码。我们还使用显性文本分析来搜索词频以及所检索文章中提及的特定病症。
共检索到117篇文章用于分析，其中大多数是面向医生读者的新闻报道。在整个纵向时间段内，我们发现大多数报道对药用大麻持积极态度。大麻最常被构建为一种合法的治疗选择，但其处方开具和获取复杂，缺乏强有力的证据支持其使用，并且还存在安全问题。与此同时，对大麻研究数据的展望在很大程度上是积极的。这些报道中最常使用的主要来源是同行评审期刊或政府报告、医学协会或基金会的声音以及政府和大学研究人员。慢性疼痛或疼痛是关于大麻的文章中最常提及的病症，其次是癫痫、癌症或癌痛以及恶心和化疗。
该分析提供了证据表明，药用大麻正被构建为一种社区倡导的有效药物，尽管缺乏证据但有潜力治疗一系列病症，并且是一种并非没有风险的药物。
