The Los Angeles Times (6/24, Kaplan) reports in “Science Now” that researchers reviewed studies testing the effectiveness of medical marijuana on 10 different conditions and concluded that “there’s very little reliable evidence to support the drug’s use,” according to a review published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
While the review found “moderate-quality evidence” for the use of medical marijuana to treat “chronic neuropathic pain or cancer pain,” it also found that “trials testing the pain-relieving effects of medical marijuana in people with fibromyalgia, HIV-associated sensory neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other conditions did not show that it worked,” only “low-quality evidence” that medical marijuana could “relieve nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, that it could stimulate appetite in people with HIV to help them gain weight, that it could help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders get more rest, and that it could reduce the severity of tics in people with Tourette syndrome,” and no reliable evidence that medical marijuana was useful to treat depression, anxiety disorders, psychosis, or to reduce eye pressure for patients with glaucoma.
According to CBS News (6/23, Welch), the JAMA study also found “an increased risk of adverse side effects, including dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance, and hallucination.”
Related Links:
— “Most uses of medical marijuana wouldn’t pass FDA review, study finds,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2015.