Cannabis reduces prevalence, progression of steatohepatitis in obese patients

Cannabis use correlated with a decreased prevalence and progression of steatohepatitis among patients who were obese, according to results presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Virtual Annual Meeting.

“These findings could possibly be explained by the anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective effect of cannabis on hepatocytes through the endocannabinoid system,” Ikechukwu Achebe, MD, from John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago, said during his presentation. “Additional studies are needed to further explore this relationship.”

Achebe and colleagues used the 2016 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project’s National Impatient Sample to identify 879,952 patients who were obese. Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — including steatosis, steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma — served as the main study outcome. Investigators compared prevalence of disease stage between cannabis users and non-users.

Compared with nonusers, 14,236 patients who used cannabis had less steatohepatitis (0.7% vs. 0.4%) and cirrhosis (1.5% vs. 1.1%). Cannabis use remained linked to less steatohepatitis (0.4% vs. 0.5%; P = .035) compared with no use after propensity matched analysis. No statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of NAFL, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma during post-match.