As states legalize medical and recreational use of marijuana, hospitals are seeing an increase in inpatients who are marijuana users. The most common co-morbidities among marijuana users are psychiatric disease and alcoholism. There has been an increase in older, sicker patients using cannabis, most likely due to the advent of medical marijuana in many states. In this current epidemiological study, cannabis use was also associated with shorter length of stay (-11%) and reduced hospital costs (-9%). In this video, American Journal of Medicine Editor-in-Chief Dr. Joseph S. Alpert explains the clinical implications of the research.
Read the research:
Trends of Cannabis Use Disorder in the Inpatient: 2002-2011
Research articles published in the American Journal of Medicine are free for a limited time. To read all of AJM’s content for free, consider subscribing here.
