Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb 1:195:13-15.
doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.11.009. Epub 2018 Dec 4.

Use of marijuana exclusively for medical purposes

Melanie M Wall  1 , Jun Liu  2 , Deborah S Hasin  3 , Carlos Blanco  4 , Mark Olfson  3
Affiliations

Use of marijuana exclusively for medical purposes

Melanie M Wall et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. .

Abstract

Objectives: To characterize the socio-demographic characteristics, medical conditions, and psychiatric comorbidities of users of marijuana for medical and non-medical purposes.

Methods: Data were from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III, a US nationally representative in-person interview of 36,309 adults age ≥18 years in 2012-2013.

Results: In relation to non-medical only users (n = 3339), combined (n = 362) and medical only (n = 82) users had higher prevalence of every medical condition examined. As compared to the combined use group, those using marijuana only for medical purposes were much less likely to have anxiety, alcohol, or non-medical prescription opioid use disorders.

Conclusions: Medical-only users appear to use it for evidence-based medical reasons and have lower prevalence of substance use disorder than other marijuana users. Nonetheless, because most medical marijuana users also use non-medically, screening for psychiatric disorders and prevention efforts for cannabis use disorder should be implemented when authorizing medical marijuana.

Keywords: Medical marijuana; Self-medication.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association(APA), 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. Author, Washington, DC.
    1. Choi NG, DiNitto DM, Marti CN, 2017. Nonmedical versus medical marijuana use among three age groups of adults: associations with mental and physical health status. Am. J. Addict 26, 697–706. 10.1111/ajad.12598. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Compton WM, Han B, Hughes A, Jones CM, Blanco C, 2017. Use of marijuana for medical purposes among adults in the United States. JAMA 317, 209–211. 10.1001/jama.2016.18900. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grant BF, Goldstein RB, Saha TD, Chou SP, Jung J, Zhang H, Pickering RP, Ruan WJ, Smith SM, Huang B, Hasin DS, 2015a. Epidemiology of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions III. JAMA Psychiatry 72, 757–766. 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0584. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grant BF, Goldstein RB, Smith SM, Jung J, Zhang H, Chou SP, Pickering RP, Ruan WJ, Huang B, Saha TD, Aivadyan C, Greenstein E, Hasin DS, 2015b. The alcohol use disorder and associated disabilities interview schedule-5 (AUDADIS-5): reliability of substance use and psychiatric disorder modules in a general population sample. Drug Alcohol Depend. 148, 27–33. 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.11.026. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms