Philadelphia, PA: Newly authorized patients who begin using medical cannabis products experience rapid and clinically meaningful improvements in their health-related quality of life, according to data published in the Journal of Cannabis Research.
Investigators affiliated with Philadelphia’s College of Osteopathic Medicine assessed changes in patients’ general health prior to their use of medical cannabis and then three months later. Researchers described their study as “one of the largest longitudinal studies of quality of life in individuals using medical marijuana in the US.”
They reported, “New medical marijuana users experienced improvements across all domains of HRQoL [health-related quality of life] over the first three months of medical marijuana use. … We believe that these HRQoL gains represent clinically meaningful change in our participants.”
Specifically, respondents reported greater than 20 percent improvements in their physical health, social functioning, and emotional well-being.
“In conclusion, the use of medical marijuana for three months was associated with improvements in physical, social, emotional and pain-related HRQoL,” the study’s authors determined. “Results from this study can help patients, their caregivers, and their providers to make more informed and evidence-based decisions on whether to incorporate medical marijuana into their treatment regimens.”
Their conclusions are consistent with those of several other studies, finding that medical cannabis use is associated with sustained quality of life improvements in a broad range of patient populations.
Full text of the study, “Changes in health-related quality of life over the first three months of medical marijuana use,” appears in the Journal of Cannabis Research.