Chicago, IL: Patients with a history of cannabis use consume fewer opioids following lower back surgery as compared to matched controls, according to data published in the Asian Spine Journal.
Investigators affiliated with the Chicago Medical School and Yale University assessed opioid utilization trends in a cohort of 1,216 patients who had undergone lumbar fusion surgery. Half of the cohort had a history of cannabis consumption and half did not. Participants were tracked for six months.
“Cannabis users had lower rates of opioid utilization compared to non-cannabis users as early as two months after fusion [surgery],” researchers determined. “[This] relationship … persisted at six months.”
The study’s authors concluded: “We found that cannabis users tended to wean off opioid analgesics earlier than non-cannabis users postoperatively, offering support for the opioid-sparing effect of cannabis theory. … Knowledge of cannabis use patterns may potentially allow physicians to cater to individual needs and provide appropriate dose titration over time. This may help reduce opioid dependence and improve patient outcomes.”
Separate studies have reported that postoperative patients who self-report consuming cannabis are less likely than non-users to engage in the long-term use of prescription opioids.
Full text of the study, “Effects of cannabis use surgery on post-operative opioid utilization in lumbar fusion patients: An American retrospective study,” appears in the Asian Spine Journal. Additional information on the opioid-sparing effects of cannabis is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Relationship Between Marijuana and Opioids.’