| Journal | Substance abuse and rehabilitation |
| Study Type | Clinical Study |
| Population | Human participants |
This item covers developments relevant to cannabis medicine and clinical practice. Clinicians monitoring evidence in this area should review the source material.
This narrative review highlights the growing population of older adults (OA) who use cannabis and health considerations of cannabis use especially relevant to aging. The majority of OA who endorse using cannabis also report choosing it for medical purposes, most commonly to target symptoms of pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. However, many OA who use cannabis also do not discuss their use with their medical providers, and additional controlled clinical trials are needed to delineate which symptoms cannabis can successfully alleviate and any conditions or circumstances for which it is contraindicated. Further, emerging research in younger populations has documented possible cardiovascular risks of heavy cannabis use, and this area has yet to be thoroughly investigated in aging adults despite risk for vascular and other forms of dementia. Preclinical models are beginning to offer insight into health effects of cannabis use with aging, including cognition and dementia risk. In part
“This is a development worth tracking. The clinical implications will become clearer as more evidence accumulates.”
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This study item was assembled from normalized source metadata and pipeline scoring.
