Cannabis use may increase mortality, morbidity from acute asthma exacerbations

Key takeaways:

• Patients with cannabis use and acute asthma attacks had greater risks for mortality and mechanical ventilation.
• There were no differences in pneumonia or sepsis between users and nonusers.

HONOLULU — Cannabis use may increase mortality and morbidity in patients with acute asthma exacerbations, according to a poster presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting.

Patients with asthma should avoid cannabis use, which may be harmful, Rami Dalbah, MBBS, third year internal medicine resident at East Tennessee State University, and colleagues wrote.

The cohort comprised 406,800 patients in the National Inpatient Sample admitted with acute asthma exacerbations between 2016 and 2019, including 16,915 with concurrent cannabis use. Median ages included 35 years for patients who used cannabis and 51 years for patients with no cannabis use.

Patients with cannabis use had increased risks for mortality (OR = 2.187; 95% CI, 1.762-2.716), mechanical ventilation (OR = 1.421; 95% CI, 1.358-1.486) and altered mental status (OR = 1.269; 95% CI, 1.422-1.866). The users and nonusers did not have any differences in developing bacterial pneumonia or sepsis.

Considering these risks, the researchers concluded that patients with asthma should avoid cannabis use, although they added that further research is needed to determine if these negative effects are dose dependent.