What influence does cannabis legalization, whether medical or recreational, have on mental health prescription medications? This is what a recent study published in JAMA Network Open hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how access to legal cannabis could impact changes in mental health prescription medications for individuals who have insurance to pay for those medications. This study holds the potential to help scientists, medical professionals, and the public better understand the impact that legalized cannabis has on the pharmaceutical industry.
For the study, the researchers enlisted approximately 10 million insured patients to ascertain changes in prescriptions of benzodiazepine, which is used to treat anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and muscle spasms, and are commonly known as Valium, Xanax, and Klonopin. In the end, the researchers found a 12.4 percent decrease in benzodiazepine prescriptions after medical cannabis was legalized, a 15.2 percent decrease in benzodiazepine prescriptions after recreational cannabis was legalized, and a 1.3 percent decrease in benzodiazepine prescriptions per patient after medical cannabis was legalized.
The study notes, “This cross-sectional study of commercially insured patients suggests that there may have been meaningful heterogeneous associations between cannabis policy and state and between cannabis policy and drug class (e.g., decreases in dispensing of benzodiazepines but increases in dispensing of antidepressants and antipsychotics). This finding suggests additional clinical research is needed to understand the association between cannabis use and mental health. The results have implications for patient substance use and mental health–related outcomes.”
This study comes as medical and recreational cannabis continues to become legalized across the United States, with numerous states legalizing both types of cannabis use.
What new connections between cannabis laws and mental health medications will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: JAMA Network Open, EurekAlert!