More than half of people who use medical marijuana products to ease pain also experience clusters of multiple withdrawal symptoms when they're between uses, a new study finds. And about 10% of the patients taking part in the study experienced worsening changes to their sleep, mood, mental state, energy and appetite over the next two years as they continued to use cannabis. Many of them may not recognize that these symptoms come not from their underlying condition, but from their brain and body's reaction to the absence of substances in the cannabis products they're smoking, vaping, eating or applying to their skin, says the University of Michigan Addiction Center psychologist who led the study. When someone experiences more than a few such symptoms, it's called cannabis withdrawal syndrome - and it can mean a higher risk of developing even more serious issues such as a cannabis use disorder.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/mm-u-mth010821.php

 

News Release 8-Jan-2021
Minority experience worsening of symptoms over time, especially younger people
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

 

More than half of people who use medical marijuana products to ease pain also experience clusters of multiple withdrawal symptoms when they're between uses, a new study finds.

And about 10% of the patients taking part in the study experienced worsening changes to their sleep, mood, mental state, energy and appetite over the next two years as they continued to use cannabis.

Many of them may not recognize that these symptoms come not from their underlying condition, but from their brain and body's reaction to the absence of substances in the cannabis products they're smoking, vaping, eating or applying to their skin, says the University of Michigan Addiction Center psychologist who led the study.

When someone experiences more than a few such symptoms, it's called cannabis withdrawal syndrome - and it can mean a higher risk of developing even more serious issues such as a cannabis use disorder.


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The perception of cannabis as "harmless" is not correct, she says. It contains substances called cannabinoids that act on the brain - and that over time can lead the brain to react when those substances are absent.

In addition to a general craving to use cannabis, withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety, sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, restlessness, depressed mood, aggression, irritability, nausea, sweating, headache, stomach pain, strange dreams, increased anger and shakiness.

Previous research has shown that the more symptoms and greater severity of symptoms a person has, the less likely they are to be able to reduce their use of cannabis, quit using it or stay away from it once they quit.

They may mistakenly think that the symptoms happen because of their underlying medical conditions, and may even increase the amount or frequency of their cannabis use to try to counteract the effect - leading to a cycle of increasing use and increasing withdrawal.

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Feeling the urge to use cannabis after a period without use, such as soon after waking up, can be a sign of a withdrawal syndrome, she notes. So can the inability to cut back on use without experiencing craving or other symptoms of withdrawal.

Because there is no medically accepted standard for medical cannabis dosing for different conditions, patients are often faced with a wide array of cannabis products that vary in strength and route of administration. Some products could pose more risk for development of withdrawal symptoms than others, Coughlin says.

For example, people who smoked cannabis tended to have more severe withdrawal symptoms than others, while people who vaped cannabis reported symptoms that tended to stay the same or get worse, but generally did not improve, over time.

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tags: drug use, drug abuse,