Objective: This exploratory analysis sought to determine whether decreases in cannabis use are associated with improvements in cannabis-related problems and functional outcomes, and if so, what percentage decrease is associated with improvement.
Methods: Data were aggregated from seven cannabis use disorder treatment trials conducted in the United States (N=920; ages 13 years and older; mean age, 25 years; 30% female, 7% Black, 11% Hispanic/Latinx). Outcome measures included the patient-reported Marijuana Problems Scale (MPS), Health-Related Quality of Life scale (HRQOL), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the clinician-rated Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) severity and improvement scales (CGI-S and CGI-I). Generalized estimating equations tested the association between changes in 4-week cannabis use and improvements in functional outcomes. Classification and regression tree (CART) models were developed to determine what reductions in cannabis use could be used as classifiers of improvement.
Results: Decreases in the amount and frequency of cannabis use were significantly associated with improvements in MPS severity and total scores as well as improvements on the CGI-I and in sleep quality, but not improvements on the HRQOL. CART models performed best for CGI-I scores (72%-75% correct classification), while other outcome measures did not perform as well (40%-62% correct classification). CART models showed improvements on the CGI at 74% reduction in use amounts and 47% reduction in use days.
Conclusions: Reductions in cannabis use (∼50% reduction in use days and ∼75% reduction in use amounts) were associated with clinician-assessed improvement, which suggests that cannabis use reduction may yield benefit among individuals with cannabis use disorder. These exploratory results extract a data-driven metric to inform future studies, clinicians, patients, and policy recommendations.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230508 | DOI Listing |
Food Res Int
February 2025
College of Food Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225127, China. Electronic address:
Effects of enzymolysis by seven proteases (Alcalase, Bromelain, Flavourzyme, Papain, Pepsin, Protamex, and Trypsin) with distinct cleavage specificities on the emulsification performance of hempseed protein (HPI) and its correlation with the structural and interfacial characteristics were explored in this study. Upon enzymolysis, a remarkable decrease in α-helix and β-turn was observed in resultant hydrolysates (HPH), accompanied by a rise in β-sheet and random coil, notably by Alcalase, Bromelain, Papain, and Trypsin. Overall, proteolysis led to noticeable reductions in surface hydrophobicity and total sulfhydryls as well as a redshift in intrinsic fluorescence, with Papain showing the most pronounced effects, possibly due to its higher hydrolysis degree (4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBraz J Biol
January 2025
Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, which leads to a reduction in the production of dopamine. Medication with levodopa becomes less effective as the disease progresses. Despite the excellent results observed in clinical practice with the medicinal use of Cannabis in the treatment of PD, the level of scientific evidence is still limited due to the small number of studies published in this field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug Alcohol Depend Rep
September 2024
Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Introduction: Opioid overdose mortality rates have surged dramatically in the last decade due largely to fentanyl in the illicit US drug supply. As of June 2024, 38 states, three territories, namely US Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia, allow the medical use of cannabis products. However, there remains limited qualitative community-based evidence on the role of cannabis co-use among opioid using and injecting populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Econ
January 2025
School of Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Understanding the behavior of populations of drug consumers has been and remains a topic of keen interest. Using a unique dataset on 25 districts from Bengal, India, from 1911 to 1925, we analyze whether populations of consumers treat alcohol, cannabis, and opium as economic substitutes or complements in a legal regime. Additionally, we examine responsiveness to prices and income.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug Alcohol Depend
February 2025
RAND, Boston, MA, United States. Electronic address:
Importance: States have implemented multiple policies likely to influence opioid prescribing; few national general population studies examine those policies' effects on per-capita opioid morphine milligram equivalents (MME) dispensed.
Objective: To examine state policies' effects on opioids per-capita MMEs dispensed at retail pharmacies.
Design: A longitudinal study of associations between MME per capita and implementation of policy interventions at different times across states.
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