Medical Cannabis Patients Report Improvements in Health Functioning and Reductions in Opiate Use

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics and ailments of all respondents (N = 2183).

Self-reported item	Category	Frequency	%
Gender	Female	1150	54.42
	Male	963	45.58
Age	21–29	236	11.11
	30–39	453	21.32
	40–49	441	20.75
	50–59	485	22.82
	60–69	403	18.96
	> = 70	107	5.04
Marital Status	Non-married	1086	50.75
	Married	1054	49.25
Employment Status	Employed (full-time/part-time)	963	46.75
	Not Employed	188	9.13
	Retired	345	16.75
	Disabled, not able to work	564	27.38
Race/Ethnicity	Non-White	318	15.30
	White	1760	84.70
Residency state/Territory	Non-Florida	15	0.71
	Florida	2087	99.29
Household income	$0 to $9,999	105	5.51
	$10,000 to $24,999	310	16.28
	$25,000 to $49,999	528	27.73
	$50,000 to $74,999	379	19.91
	$75,000 to $99,999	238	12.50
	$100,000 to $124,999	159	8.35
	$125,000 and up	185	9.72
Ailments* (Choose all that apply)	Pain	188	9.07
	Cancer	35	1.69
	Mental Health	598	28.86
	Pain + Cancer	14	0.68
	Pain + Mental Health	993	47.92
	Pain + Cancer + Mental Heath	71	3.43
	Cancer + Mental Health	27	1.30
	Other (not pain, cancer, mental health)	146	7.05

* responses were grouped together based on type of ailment(s) in the Choose all that apply question. See Supplementary Table 1 for the most commonly reported individual ailments.

Table 2. Habits and perceptions of patient use of all respondents.

Usage and perception items (number of responses)	Frequency	Percent
What best describes your current level of cannabis use? (N = 1882)
Regularly throughout the day	1035	54.99
Occasionally throughout the day	462	24.55
Once or twice a day	183	9.72
Evenings only	163	8.66
Several times a week	25	1.33
Weekends only	4	0.21
Several times a month	10	0.53
How do you feel about your current level of cannabis use? (N = 1858)
Much less than needed	70	3.77
Slightly less than needed	227	12.22
Correct use	1126	60.60
Slightly more than needed	134	7.21
Much more than needed	76	4.09
Not concerned	225	12.11
How long have you been using medical cannabis? (N = 1934)
0–12 months	1259	65.10
1–3 years	406	20.99
3–5 years	63	3.26
5–10 years	54	2.79
Over 10 years	152	7.86
How helpful is medical cannabis use when dealing with your medical condition(s)? (N = 2084)
Not at all helpful	2	0.10
Slightly helpful	38	1.82
Moderately helpful	156	7.49
Very helpful	579	27.78
Extremely helpful	1309	62.81
How important are medical cannabis products to your overall quality of life? (N = 1871)
Not at all important	18	0.96
Slightly important	34	1.82
Moderately important	160	8.55
Very important	530	28.33
Extremely important	1129	60.34

Table 3.1. Self-reported health functioning and changes pre- and post-medical cannabis.

Health functioning domain	Percent change						Paired t-tests of means
	Post-medical cannabis						Difference (post-pre scores)
	Improved outcomes		Same/No change		Worse outcomes
	N	%	N	%	N	%	Mean^1 (SD)	P-value	Cohen’s D
Physical functioning (8 Items)	1467	75.97	380	19.68	84	4.35	26.55 (27.10)	<.0001	1.0
Role-physical limitation (4 Items)	236	29.10	545	67.20	30	3.70	13.87 (27.89)	<.0001	0.5
Bodily pain (2 items)	1726	89.66	161	8.36	38	1.97	35.15 (22.87)	<.0001	1.5
Social functioning (1 Item)	1599	84.03	242	12.72	62	3.26	43.64 (32.05)	<.0001	1.4
Role-emotional limitation (3 Items)	133	19.56	531	78.09	16	2.35	9.66 (23.72)	<.0001	0.4

1 Mean difference scores for each domain (post minus pre); a positive value indicates improvement in domain mean Post-score.

Table 3.2. Multiple linear regression of post-medical cannabis scores for each health functioning domain.

	Domains
	Physical functioning (PF)		Role-physical limitations (RP)		Bodily pain (BP)		Social functioning (SF)		Role-emotional limitations (RE)
Parameter	Estimate	P-value	Estimate	P-value	Estimate	P-value	Estimate	P-value	Estimate	P-value
Intercept	67.8963	<.0001	55.5026	<.0001	68.7530	<.0001	81.9502	<.0001	48.3389	<.0001
Domain pre- score	0.3712	<.0001	0.3409	<.0001	0.3800	<.0001	0.1512	<.0001	0.2990	<.0001
Age (ref: 21–29)
30–39	1.6798	0.3133	−2.0734	0.4764	−0.7660	0.6096	−0.3055	0.8756	−0.9892	0.6763
40–49	0.0872	0.9596	−3.3437	0.2366	−1.8848	0.2251	0.9842	0.6246	2.4629	0.3009
50–59	−3.5632	0.0408	−0.4031	0.8852	−2.9471	0.0594	3.6778	0.0710	1.1004	0.6441
60–69	−5.0635	0.0100	−2.7047	0.3743	−1.4704	0.4046	4.2878	0.0640	1.1528	0.6596
> =70	−12.7669	<.0001	−6.7870	0.0996	−2.5788	0.3104	4.5480	0.1730	−3.5117	0.3359
Employment (ref: employed)
Not employed	−0.7385	0.6542	−4.2689	0.1203	−2.3488	0.1140	−2.2438	0.2477	−3.9207	0.0899
Retired	−4.2885	0.0137	−0.5256	0.8313	−7.3377	<.0001	−4.1869	0.0401	−1.2871	0.5728
Disabled	−16.5131	<.0001	−6.1531	0.0004	−13.0552	<.0001	−10.5671	<.0001	−3.8207	0.0151
Race (ref: Non-White)
White	−2.9802	0.0208	−1.7606	0.3667	−5.3686	<.0001	−5.1569	0.0007	−0.3701	0.8304
Number of ailments	−0.3197	0.0800	−0.1475	0.5471	−0.6116	0.0002	−0.89489	<.0001	0.0143	0.9478
Length of Cannabis Use	0.6283	0.1017	−0.1418	0.8206	0.7257	0.0359	1.0351	0.0209	−0.5535	0.3115

Table 4. Type and amount of pain medication used pre- and post-medical cannabis access.

Pain medication use items	Pre-medical cannabis		Post-medical cannabis
	N	%	N	%
Which of the following medications do you use for pain? (Choose all that apply)
None	746	39.02	1484	79.74
hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)	704	36.82	136	7.31
oxycodone and acetaminophen (Percocet, Roxicet)	512	26.78	89	4.78
oxycodone (OxyContin, Oxaydo)	369	19.30	63	3.39
hydrocodone (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER)	310	16.21	36	1.93
codeine (only available in generic form)	238	12.45	42	2.26
morphine (Kadian, MS Contin, Morphabond)	193	10.09	51	2.74
hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Exalgo)	176	9.21	25	1.34
fentanyl (Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora, Abstral, Onsolis)	150	7.85	32	1.72
oxycodone and naloxone	95	4.97	18	0.97
methadone (Dolophine, Methadose)	86	4.50	22	1.18
meperidine (Demerol)	57	2.98	7	0.38
How many different medications do you use for pain?
None	746	39.02	1484	79.74
1	493	25.78	285	15.31
2	279	14.59	68	3.65
3 − 5	290	15.17	21	1.13
6 − 8	80	4.18	2	0.11
9 − 11	24	1.26	1	0.05

Table 5. Changes to pain medication use following medical cannabis initiation.

Pain medication use (number of responses)		N	%
Prior to medical cannabis use, did you use pain medications? (N = 1912)
No		746	39.02
Yes		1166	60.98
If yes, how long did you use pain medications (prior to medical cannabis use)? (N = 1161)
Never		10	0.86
< 6 months		142	12.23
6–12 months		77	6.63
1–2 years		113	9.73
2–5 years		242	20.84
5–10 years		245	21.10
10+ years		332	28.60
If yes, did medical cannabis use change your use of pain medications? (N = 1114)
No		74	6.64
Yes		1040	93.36
If yes, how has medical cannabis use changed your use of pain medications? (N = 959)
Group/Category	Description of response	N	%
Ceased pain meds	Ceased pain medication use as a result of using medical cannabis	400	41.71
Reduced pain meds	Reduced the need for and use of pain medications	360	37.54
Change improved functioning	Improved functioning with more use of medical cannabis and less use of pain medications	110	11.47
Ceased pain/psychiatric meds	Completely off all pain and psychiatric medications (e.g. for anxiety, depression, PTSD)	26	2.71
Added MC	Added medical cannabis	17	1.77
Other	Other (non-categorized) responses	46	4.80