Skip to content

Older adults and medical marijuana: Reduced stigma and increased use

April 24, 2020 / Arfinn Med MD /

Older adults and medical marijuana: Reduced stigma and increased use

As a primary care doctor who has incorporated medical cannabis into his practice, it is notable how many silver-haired patients are coming in to discuss the pros and cons of a trial of medical cannabis. These patients range from people in their 60s with kidney failure who can no longer take certain pain medications but still need to manage chronic pain, to patients in their 90s, who are looking for a good night’s sleep and are leery of the side effects of traditional sleep medications. Some of them — typically “children of the 60s” — are quite comfortable with the idea of using medical marijuana; others bring it up quietly, as if they are asking permission to break the law.

According to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, cannabis use among older adults (defined as 65 and older) in the US has been steadily increasing. In this study, the prevalence of past-year use increased from 2.4% to 4.2% from 2015 to 2018. This study is consistent with other research, as well as with reports from physicians who recommend cannabis in their daily practices.

What might be behind this trend?

Read Full Article Here

Stories you may be interested in

Americans Are Googling CBD More Than Acupuncture, Meditation And Exercise, Study Finds

People are increasingly more interested in CBD—or cannabidiol—than other health trends such as acupuncture, apple cider vinegar, exercise and veganism, according to a new review. In fact, the non-intoxicating cannabis compound has risen in popularity so much that people Google it nearly as much as they do for yoga and e-cigarettes. In a paper published…
Read More →

World Cancer Day – Shine a Light on the World

In 2018, it was estimated that 1,735,350 new cancer cases would be diagnosed in the United States and 609,640 individuals would pass from the disease [Cancer.gov]. We cannot sit by and ignore this life altering disease, which is why World Cancer Day, recognized on Feb. 4, is such an important awareness campaign to the Arfinn…
Read More →

Insomnia: A Silent Epidemic

The struggle to get a good night’s sleep is something many adults can relate to, but what if there was a natural alternative to keep those sheep jumping all night long? CBD, also known as cannabidiol, has been gaining popularity among patients to help treat pain, anxiety and so much more. Additionally, conditions such as…
Read More →

Cannabis and Mental Health: Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety may sound like something we all experience at times in life, and that is true. It is natural for a person to feel nervous or anxious in situations like being alone in a new place or going on a first date. But for those living with social anxiety disorder, those instances of anxiety…
Read More →

Unstructured EHR data more useful for predictive analytics, study shows

A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association has shown that real-world data contained in unstructured narratives has big predictive value when it comes to clinical research. WHY IT MATTERSWhile structured clinical notes in the electronic health record have obvious value, the research in JAMIA suggests that real-world data captured in unstructured notes…
Read More →

Medical marijuana helped elderly with chronic pain and reduced their use of opioids, study found

Your grandparents’ chronic aches and pains might best be eased with a little weed, a new study suggests. Not only did folks over 75 who took medical marijuana report less pain, their use of pot-based capsules, tinctures and e-cigarettes allowed a third of these patients to reduce their use of opioid painkillers, researchers found. “Medical marijuana, in…
Read More →

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.