Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts University, and McLean Hospital

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts University, and McLean Hospital conducted a study which assessed the impact of marijuana use on patient’s cognitive performance and function, as well as impact on pain score, along with some other factors. Some of the tests were Stroop Color Word Test and Trail Making Test, social and emotional disability scales, pain severity and pain interference on brief pain inventory (BPI) among others.

The objective of the study was to determine the long-term effects of medical marijuana treatment on pain and functional outcomes of patients who had chronic pain and were resistant to other treatments. The first phase of the pilot study was completed in three months.

This was the first study to examine the cognitive performance in medical marijuana patients prior to initiation of treatment and then compare the scores to performance following regular marijuana use.

The results indicate that patients have shown improvement on assessments of executive functioning by increasing the speed rate at which tasks were performed, without diminishing the accuracy of responses. Patients showed improved pain scores and more functionality. Other outcomes included improved S-TOPS scores (physical, emotional and social disability scale), pain severity, pain interference on the brief pain inventory, better sleep patterns and reduction of opioid use. These results suggest long-term benefits of medical marijuana.

There are other recent and past studies which demonstrated the benefits of medical marijuana use. For example, a study done in California revealed that out of the people surveyed who used medical marijuana, 92% noted that it was helpful in helping them treat a serious medical condition, pain being cited as the number one reason people wanted to use medical marijuana in the first place.

It is also interesting that many of the patients in the Harvard study stopped taking other pharmaceutical drugs for pain once they started using medical marijuana and this was evident as the pain scores improved.

Who can Qualify for Medical Marijuana In Florida?

Amendment 2 was written specifically to allow Medical Marijuana to be provided as a treatment for patients with the following diseases: Cancer; Epilepsy; Glaucoma; HIV;AIDS; Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); Crohn’s Disease; Parkinson’s Disease & Multiple Sclerosis

Amendment 2 was also created to allow licensed physicians to approve patients for medical marijuana use after diagnosingthem with some “other debilitating medical conditions of thesame kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated.”