Huge New Review Shows What Medical Marijuana May (and May Not) Help
Jun-24-2015

Medical marijuana is currently legal in 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. From state to state, marijuana is approved for a variety of conditions, including but not limited to epilepsy, arthritis, nausea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, chronic pain, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"States recommend use for 20 to 30 conditions when many of those conditions have little or no evidence," says Kevin P. Hill, MD, MHS, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Substance Abuse Consultation Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. "There's a tremendous need for evidence-based guidance on medical marijuana, and I can tell you from speaking both nationally and internationally that physicians and patients alike are clamoring for practical advice," Hill, the author of Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World's Most Popular Weed, tells Yahoo Health.

A series of studies and articles published today in JAMA offer some answers to questions that have been on the minds of doctors, legislators, and the public: What conditions or symptoms can medical marijuana help relieve, and to what extent? What are the side effects, and how common and serious are they? And what does this mean for patients suffering from chronic conditions, and for the doctors treating them?

One of the studies released today is the most comprehensive analysis of research on medical uses for cannabinoids (the active chemical compounds in marijuana) to date. It included 79 different trials, collectively involving more than 6,400 participants. In addition, all of the studies included in the analysis were randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of research quality) that compared cannabinoids with a placebo (sugar pill), usual care, or no treatment.

It's important to note that most of the studies in the analysis did not ask patients to inhale marijuana, which contains more than 60 different cannabinoids. Instead, participants took cannabinoid medications, which deliver one or two of the chemicals. Dronabinol, for example, is a synthetic form of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting and to help underweight AIDS patients gain weight.

"We only identified two studies on inhaled marijuana which might be a reflection of the legal status," says study author Penny F. Whiting, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in the UK. "In addition, it is easier to control the dose when studying synthetic drugs than to herbal plants that are administered by inhalation."

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