Research studies, summarized and reviewed by Dr. Benjamin Caplan, MD¹ (Page 2)

Researchers followed adults undergoing major abdominal operations for cancer to see how regular use of cannabis affects pain levels, pain medication needs, and recovery complications. Patients were categorized based on their self-reported habits and confirmed with blood tests taken on the day of surgery.

Researchers analyzed two large national health surveys from Canada conducted ten years apart to understand how cannabis use relates to anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide over time. They compared how often people used cannabis against whether they experienced these mental health conditions across the entire population, including youth and adults.

The Blowing Minds protocol establishes a robust framework to evaluate the complex, real-world interactions between cannabis use (medicinal vs. recreational), affect, cognition, and legal context using ecological momentary assessment. By capturing unsupervised medicinal use and granular daily variables, this study will help clinicians better understand the dual mental health outcomes associated with regular cannabis exposure.

The study looked at individuals at high risk for psychosis and healthy controls to understand the effects of cannabis and tobacco use. Researchers examined how these substances affected psychiatric symptoms and the likelihood of developing psychosis. They found that using both substances together was common and had significant implications for mental health.

This study looked at young men who use cannabis to see how it might affect their hormone levels. Researchers conducted detailed tests to measure various hormones in the body. The goal was to understand if cannabis has an impact on endocrine function, which refers to the system that produces hormones.

Researchers examined hospital records across the United States from 2016 to 2020 to understand how problematic cannabis use affects patients hospitalized with advanced liver damage caused by metabolic dysfunction (a condition involving liver fat accumulation and inflammation). They compared adults with this specific liver disease who had a cannabis use disorder against those who did not, while accounting for age, gender, race, and other health conditions.

Researchers looked at health records of people diagnosed with a problem related to using cannabis, and compared their mental health to people diagnosed with problems related to other drugs. They grouped the results by adults and by young people.

In adults under 50, frequent and daily cannabis use is independently associated with a dose-dependent increase in the odds of early-onset heart disease. Clinicians should incorporate structured cannabis use histories into routine cardiovascular risk assessments for younger patients and counsel them on potential cardiac risks.

This study looked at young women who train as professional dancers. Some took a daily probiotic supplement, which is a capsule of helpful bacteria, and others took a look-alike sugar-and-starch capsule for three months. The researchers checked the body's natural calming chemicals and signs of inflammation before and after.

Researchers evaluated whether adding plant-derived cannabis drops to standard medical treatment would improve chronic nerve pain and sleep for adult men who suffered severe shoulder and arm nerve trauma. The study used a rigorous design where participants received either cannabis or a dummy substance for two weeks before switching treatments.