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The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study

BACKGROUND: Insomnia is a prevalent condition that presents itself at both the symptom and diagnostic levels. Although insomnia is one of the main reasons individuals seek medicinal cannabis, little is known about the profile of cannabinoid use or the perceived benefit of the use of cannabinoids in...

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Autores principales: Kuhathasan, Nirushi, Minuzzi, Luciano, MacKillop, James, Frey, Benicio N
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8581757/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34704957
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25730
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author Kuhathasan, Nirushi
Minuzzi, Luciano
MacKillop, James
Frey, Benicio N
author_facet Kuhathasan, Nirushi
Minuzzi, Luciano
MacKillop, James
Frey, Benicio N
author_sort Kuhathasan, Nirushi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Insomnia is a prevalent condition that presents itself at both the symptom and diagnostic levels. Although insomnia is one of the main reasons individuals seek medicinal cannabis, little is known about the profile of cannabinoid use or the perceived benefit of the use of cannabinoids in daily life. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a retrospective study of medicinal cannabis users to investigate the use profile and perceived efficacy of cannabinoids for the management of insomnia. METHODS: Data were collected using the Strainprint app, which allows medicinal cannabis users to log conditions and symptoms, track cannabis use, and monitor symptom severity pre- and postcannabis use. Our analyses examined 991 medicinal cannabis users with insomnia across 24,189 tracked cannabis use sessions. Sessions were analyzed, and both descriptive statistics and linear mixed-effects modeling were completed to examine use patterns and perceived efficacy. RESULTS: Overall, cannabinoids were perceived to be efficacious across all genders and ages, and no significant differences were found among product forms, ingestion methods, or gender groups. Although all strain categories were perceived as efficacious, predominant indica strains were found to reduce insomnia symptomology more than cannabidiol (CBD) strains (estimated mean difference 0.59, SE 0.11; 95% CI 0.36-0.81; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (estimated mean difference 0.74, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.43-1.06; adjusted P<.001). Indica hybrid strains also presented a greater reduction in insomnia symptomology than CBD strains (mean difference 0.52, SE 0.12; 95% CI 0.29-0.74; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (mean difference 0.67, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.34-1.00; adjusted P=.002). CONCLUSIONS: Medicinal cannabis users perceive a significant improvement in insomnia with cannabinoid use, and this study suggests a possible advantage with the use of predominant indica strains compared with predominant sativa strains and exclusively CBD in this population. This study emphasizes the need for randomized placebo-controlled trials assessing the efficacy and safety profile of cannabinoids for the treatment of insomnia.
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spelling pubmed-85817572021-11-24 The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study Kuhathasan, Nirushi Minuzzi, Luciano MacKillop, James Frey, Benicio N J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Insomnia is a prevalent condition that presents itself at both the symptom and diagnostic levels. Although insomnia is one of the main reasons individuals seek medicinal cannabis, little is known about the profile of cannabinoid use or the perceived benefit of the use of cannabinoids in daily life. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a retrospective study of medicinal cannabis users to investigate the use profile and perceived efficacy of cannabinoids for the management of insomnia. METHODS: Data were collected using the Strainprint app, which allows medicinal cannabis users to log conditions and symptoms, track cannabis use, and monitor symptom severity pre- and postcannabis use. Our analyses examined 991 medicinal cannabis users with insomnia across 24,189 tracked cannabis use sessions. Sessions were analyzed, and both descriptive statistics and linear mixed-effects modeling were completed to examine use patterns and perceived efficacy. RESULTS: Overall, cannabinoids were perceived to be efficacious across all genders and ages, and no significant differences were found among product forms, ingestion methods, or gender groups. Although all strain categories were perceived as efficacious, predominant indica strains were found to reduce insomnia symptomology more than cannabidiol (CBD) strains (estimated mean difference 0.59, SE 0.11; 95% CI 0.36-0.81; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (estimated mean difference 0.74, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.43-1.06; adjusted P<.001). Indica hybrid strains also presented a greater reduction in insomnia symptomology than CBD strains (mean difference 0.52, SE 0.12; 95% CI 0.29-0.74; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (mean difference 0.67, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.34-1.00; adjusted P=.002). CONCLUSIONS: Medicinal cannabis users perceive a significant improvement in insomnia with cannabinoid use, and this study suggests a possible advantage with the use of predominant indica strains compared with predominant sativa strains and exclusively CBD in this population. This study emphasizes the need for randomized placebo-controlled trials assessing the efficacy and safety profile of cannabinoids for the treatment of insomnia. JMIR Publications 2021-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8581757/ /pubmed/34704957 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25730 Text en ©Nirushi Kuhathasan, Luciano Minuzzi, James MacKillop, Benicio N Frey. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 27.10.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Kuhathasan, Nirushi
Minuzzi, Luciano
MacKillop, James
Frey, Benicio N
The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title_full The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title_fullStr The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title_full_unstemmed The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title_short The Use of Cannabinoids for Insomnia in Daily Life: Naturalistic Study
title_sort use of cannabinoids for insomnia in daily life: naturalistic study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8581757/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34704957
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25730
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