Medical marijuana helps 91 percent of older adults improve their pain, insomnia and mood or behavioral symptoms, a new study has found.
The research involved 124 people over the age of 65 who received medical cannabis from a specialized practice in Colombia and whose symptoms were measured at baseline, 44 of whom had a follow-up visit after three months.
Most of the participants had not previously used marijuana, and the most frequent diagnoses they presented with were pain-related and musculoskeletal disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative and non-degenerative neurological disorders—with their top therapeutic objectives being relief of pain, mood/behavioral issues, insomnia and motor symptoms.
Patients’ symptoms were recorded by treating physicians and then coded by researchers on a four-point scale (0 = absent, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, and 3 = severe), “classified according to its documented impact on patients’ autonomy, basic and instrumental activities of daily living, and participation in meaningful daily activities,” the paper said.
“Symptom severity decreased significantly across the three main symptom domains, with improvement in approximately 90% of patients.”
Symptom improvement was defined as a reduction of at least one point in severity relative to baseline, and 91 percent of participants met that threshold, the study, which has not yet been published in a journal and has been made available as a preprint, found.
“The first documented improvement occurred at visit 2 in 67.7% of patients with pain, 65.4% of those with insomnia, and 73.9% of those with mood or behavioral symptoms, with median times to first improvement of three, two, and one month, respectively,” the researchers wrote.
“Symptom evolution between baseline and the last available follow-up visit demonstrated a consistent reduction in symptom severity across the three most prevalent clinical domains. Median severity scores for pain, insomnia, and mood or behavioral symptoms decreased significantly from baseline to the last available assessment, and no patient showed worsening of symptom severity.”
Analyses also showed that there were “strong effect sizes” for descriptive improvements in digestive and motor symptoms, appetite, well-being and physical strength—though those were not statistically significant.
There was a “significant progressive decline in symptom severity over successive follow-up visits for pain, insomnia, and mood or behavioral symptoms.”
While total resolution of symptoms was uncommon, a small numbers of patients with pain, insomnia and mood/behavioral issues did report complete relief.
Notably, the researchers said that the clinically effective doses of cannabis, which was most commonly administered in oral oil-based formulations, was “low”—typically using just a few milligrams per day of THC, CBD and/or CBG.
The study, which received funding from the European Union, also measured patients’ ongoing use of other medications after starting cannabis, finding that while the “overall medication burden remained stable,” there were dose reductions or discontinuations of concomitant medications in a quarter of the patients.
Overall, there was a “favorable longitudinal evolution of the three most prevalent symptom domains—pain, insomnia, and mood or behavioral symptoms—during routine treatment with supervised medical cannabis,” the paper said.
“Symptom intensity decreased from predominantly moderate to mild levels, and most patients experienced at least a one-point reduction in the severity of their principal symptom during follow-up. Longitudinal analyses further showed progressive improvement across successive follow-up visits, suggesting that these changes reflected a sustained clinical trajectory rather than an isolated difference between baseline and the final assessment.”
“In this retrospective real-world study, older adults receiving supervised medical cannabis experienced favorable symptom evolution during follow-up, while treatment showed a clinically acceptable safety profile and was characterized by consistently low documented clinically effective doses,” the researchers concluded.
The findings, they said, “add to the growing evidence that cannabis may represent a therapeutic option for selected older adults under specialist supervision.”
The researchers cautioned that the observational nature of the study means that causality cannot be inferred, though they do plan to follow up with larger cohorts of patients in Colombia, Argentina and Chile, which they said will “improve statistical power, increase the diversity of clinical practice settings, and allow more robust evaluation of treatment patterns, effectiveness, and safety across different healthcare contexts.”
A separate recent federally funded study published by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that “older adults are increasingly turning to cannabis for symptom management”—with many motivated to try marijuana “as an alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals due to concerns about adverse effects.”
“As cannabis legalization becomes more widespread, older adults are increasingly turning to it not just for recreational use, but to manage symptoms associated with aging, including pain, sleep disturbances, and mental health concerns,” that research found.
AMA separately adopted a resolution this year that recognizes both the risks and potential therapeutic benefits of marijuana use among older adults.
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.
