Zolotov Yuval, Lomba Jacinta, Ghiroli Megan, Masyukova Mariya, Arnsten Julia H, Starrels Joanna L, Ross Jonathan, Cunningham Chinazo O, Slawek Deepika E
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 3300 Kossuth Ave, Bronx, NY, 10467, USA.
Department of Family and Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
J Cannabis Res. 2023 Mar 29;5(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s42238-023-00180-1.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health care but it is unknown how it impacted the lives of people using medical cannabis for chronic pain.
To understand the experiences of individuals from the Bronx, NY, who had chronic pain and were certified to use medical cannabis during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We conducted 1:1 semi-structured qualitative telephone interviews from March through May 2020 with a convenience sample of 14 individuals enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study. We purposively recruited participants with both frequent and infrequent patterns of cannabis use. Interviews addressed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily life, symptoms, medical cannabis purchase, and use. We conducted a thematic analysis, with a codebook approach, to identify and describe prominent themes.
Participants' median age was 49 years, nine were female, four were Hispanic, four were non-Hispanic White, and four were non-Hispanic Black. We identified three themes: (1) disrupted access to health services, (2) disrupted access to medical cannabis due to the pandemic, and (3) mixed impact of chronic pain on social isolation and mental health. Due to increased barriers to health care in general and to medical cannabis specifically, participants reduced medical cannabis use, stopped use, or substituted medical cannabis with unregulated cannabis. Living with chronic pain both prepared participants for the pandemic and made the pandemic more difficult.
The COVID-19 pandemic amplified pre-existing challenges and barriers to care, including to medical cannabis, among people with chronic pain. Understanding pandemic-era barriers may inform policies in ongoing and future public health emergencies.
新冠疫情扰乱了医疗保健，但尚不清楚它对使用医用大麻治疗慢性疼痛的人群的生活产生了怎样的影响。
了解纽约布朗克斯区在新冠疫情第一波期间患有慢性疼痛且获得医用大麻使用认证的个人的经历。
我们于2020年3月至5月对14名参与纵向队列研究的便利样本进行了一对一的半结构化定性电话访谈。我们有目的地招募了大麻使用频率高和低的参与者。访谈涉及新冠疫情对日常生活、症状、医用大麻购买和使用的影响。我们采用编码手册方法进行了主题分析，以识别和描述突出主题。
参与者的年龄中位数为49岁，9名女性，4名西班牙裔，4名非西班牙裔白人，4名非西班牙裔黑人。我们确定了三个主题：（1）获得医疗服务的机会受到干扰，（2）疫情导致获得医用大麻的机会受到干扰，（3）慢性疼痛对社会隔离和心理健康的综合影响。由于总体上获得医疗保健尤其是获得医用大麻的障碍增加，参与者减少了医用大麻的使用、停止使用或用未受监管的大麻替代医用大麻。患有慢性疼痛既让参与者为疫情做好了准备，也使疫情变得更加艰难。
新冠疫情加剧了慢性疼痛患者在医疗保健方面，包括医用大麻方面，先前存在的挑战和障碍。了解疫情时代的障碍可能为当前和未来公共卫生紧急事件中的政策提供参考。
