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Frequent cannabis use strengthens associations between medication-assisted therapy symptoms

Patients receiving medication-assisted therapy for opioid use disorder who used cannabis frequently had stronger associations between symptoms of anxiety or depression and pain, according to findings recently published in Addictive Behaviors.

“A dearth of knowledge exists about cannabis' effects on pain and affective symptoms among adults receiving [medication-assisted therapy],” Marian Wilson, PhD, of the College of Nursing at Washington State University and colleagues wrote. “It is important to consider whether adjuncts, including cannabis, could assist in reducing distressing symptoms of pain and affect, opioid dosages, risk of overdose deaths, and/or relapses. Such information is essential to guide patients regarding risks and benefits of cannabis, particularly as clinicians strive to limit opioid dosages and follow recommendations to reduce overdose risk for people with pain and/or opioid use disorders.”

Researchers surveyed cannabis use, pain intensity, depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety and self-efficacy for managing emotions among 150 participants undergoing medication-assisted treatment and participating in one of two treatment program clinics. The mean age of the participants in the study was 38.82 years, and 55.1% were female.

Wilson and colleagues found that approximately two-thirds of participants had used cannabis in the past year and slightly more than half had used it in the past month. In addition, bivariate correlation analyses showed significant positive correlations between pain intensity and anxiety, depression and anxiety, and pain intensity and depression.

“That's not necessarily the pattern you'd want to see,” Wilson said in a press release. “You would hope, if cannabis is helpful, the more they use it the fewer symptoms they'd see.”

Researchers also found that cannabis frequency was only significantly negatively correlated with self-efficacy for managing emotions, between self-efficacy for managing symptoms and both depression and anxiety, and between self-efficacy for managing emotions and both depression and anxiety.

“Important next steps include understanding how self-efficacy can be improved through targeted interventions for specific symptom self-management, especially in cannabis users. It would also be worthwhile exploring whether improving self-efficacy reduces reliance on cannabis to cope with symptom burden and helps to disentangle the relationships between pain and negative affect,” Wilson and colleagues wrote, adding that future research may want to explore how symptoms engage with and react to therapies. – by Janel Miller

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.