GoKawiilA major paper published in The Lancet reports that medicinal cannabis does not effectively treat anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The analysis is the largest to date examining both the safety and effectiveness of cannabinoids across a wide range of mental health conditions.
These findings arrive at a time when cannabis use for medical purposes is widespread. About 27 percent of people aged 16-65 in the United States and Canada report using cannabis medically, and roughly half of them say they use it to manage mental health symptoms.
Lead author Dr. Jack Wilson from the University of Sydney's Matilda Centre said the results raise serious questions about approving medicinal cannabis for conditions like anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
"Though our paper didn't specifically look at this, the routine use of medicinal cannabis could be doing more harm than good by worsening mental health outcomes, for example a greater risk of psychotic symptoms and developing cannabis use disorder, and delaying the use of more effective treatments," he said.
Limited Evidence for Other Conditions
The researchers did find some indications that medicinal cannabis might help in certain cases. These include cannabis use disorder (otherwise known as cannabis dependency), autism, insomnia, and tics or Tourette's syndrome.
However, Dr. Wilson emphasized that the supporting evidence for these uses is not strong.
"But the overall quality of evidence for these other conditions, such as autism and insomnia, was low. In the absence of robust medical or counseling support, the use of medicinal cannabis in these cases are rarely justified.
"There is, however, evidence that medicinal cannabis may be beneficial in certain health conditions, such as reducing seizures associated with some forms of epilepsy, spasticity among those with multiple sclerosis, and managing certain types of pain, but our study shows the evidence for mental health disorders falls short.
"In the case of autism specifically, while the study showed some evidence medicinal cannabis could assist with a reduction in symptoms, it is worth noting that there is no one -- or universal -- experience of autism, so this finding should be treated with caution."
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