Did someone ask for three good reasons to get an Indiana Marijuana Card? Well good, because that’s what we’ve got right here!
A new peer-reviewed study has found that medical marijuana can effectively treat depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
The study’s lead researcher, University of South Carolina doctoral candidate Erin Martin, told the psychology and neurology news website PsyPost that “Medicinal cannabis products, especially products high in CBD, may help to treat symptoms of depression, improve sleep, and increase quality of life.”
Didn’t We Already Know Medical Marijuana Could Treat Those Conditions?
You might think this falls under the “water is wet” category. After all, we’ve already told you that medical marijuana can treat sleep disorders, and numerous studies have found that medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for depression as well as anxiety.
But as we’ll see, each new study that confirms cannabis’ medical value is a big win for advancing the cause of making medical marijuana accessible to everyone who needs it.
Researcher Notes Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety, and Patients’ Frustrations with Both
Martin said the findings were especially important, because depression and anxiety are such common disorders, and because patients so frequently express their frustration with traditional pharmaceutical treatments for both.
“Anxiety and depressive disorders are highly prevalent,” Martin told PsyPost. “Traditional antidepressants may effectively treat these disorders in a lot of people, but they do not work for everyone and can have unpleasant side effects.”
According to the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, there are more than thirty million people worldwide dealing with depression. Here at home, as many as nine million Americans suffer from generalized anxiety disorder.
Unfortunately for those millions of people, antidepressants can take months to show positive results, and they often cause significant adverse side effects. Not only can medical marijuana show antidepressant effects within moments of being taken, but most patients find its limited side effects to be highly tolerable.
Findings Especially Noteworthy for Patients Who Were New to Medical Marijuana
The study looked at both test subjects who were already medical marijuana users and people who were new to the medication. While both groups showed marijuana effectively treated these conditions, the findings were especially strong for patients who were new to cannabis.
That finding could be the result of medical marijuana users having entered the study with a better handle on their depression, as the study found that those patients began the study with lower levels of depression than did their nonusing counterparts. Medical marijuana patients were also less likely to have pain and symptoms of clinical depression than nonusers at the study’s beginning, and more likely to report experiencing better sleep and quality of life over the past month.
At the end of the study, when both users and nonusers had been on a regular medical marijuana routine, the nonusers showed reductions in depression, anxiety, and pain, as well as improved sleep quality and quality of life.
So Why Did We Need Another Study to Repeat Past Findings?
Because of the federal prohibition on marijuana, cannabis researchers face many obstacles in conducting their work. Consequently, there is a much larger body of research related to most pharmaceutical medications than there is to medical marijuana. And because science demands high levels of certainty before drawing conclusions, scientists are generally less willing to make conclusive statements about medical marijuana’s efficacy than they are about pharmaceuticals.
The result is that marijuana research has been that marijuana research is “bottlenecked because of limitations on studying the Cannabis sativa plant.”
You see, despite being legal in thirty-six states, and despite large and growing research demonstrating its efficacy, the federal government continues to consider cannabis a Schedule I drug, meaning it has “no currently accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” As a result, scientists who want to know more about the medical value of marijuana face significant barriers in conducting their research.
And that’s exactly why these findings are so exciting. Research of medical marijuana has been hampered by outdated biases and laws, so each new study that presents positive findings helps chip away at what has been called a “vicious cycle” when it comes to marijuana research.
The “Vicious Cycle” of Medical Marijuana Research
This cycle was described to Discover Magazine by Harvard researcher Dr. Staci Gruber, who also leads the Marijuana Investigations for Neurological Discoveries, a research nonprofit whose mission, in part, is to “Support a wide range of studies that will generate ecologically valid, empirically sound data in order to close the gap between policy and science.”
According to Gruber, legislators often seek guidance from researchers when creating cannabis policies. Unfortunately, due to the legal limitations on marijuana research, and the resulting, relatively limited amount of marijuana studies, scientists usually cannot give legislators concrete proof of marijuana’s safety and efficacy.
And feeling thus uncertain about medical marijuana’s safety, lawmakers often default to prohibition, meaning those research barriers remain in place, and scientists continue to be unable in many cases to give legislators the proof they want.
And that’s the real big story here. We already knew medical marijuana can effectively treat depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. But the more times researchers verify findings like these, the closer we get to ending the marijuana research bottleneck, and then the closer we get to the day when medical marijuana is accessible to everyone who needs it.
You Don’t Have to Wait for Indiana Law to Catch up with the Times Before Starting Your Own Medical Marijuana Journey
We’re confident that medical marijuana is coming to Indiana. How confident are we? We’re so confident that we want to help you get ready for it right now!
Reserve a medical marijuana evaluation online today with one of our knowledgeable, compassionate medical marijuana doctors, and we’ll book an appointment for you just as soon as Indiana has established a medical marijuana market.
Together you and your doctor will discuss your conditions and if you qualify for an Indiana Marijuana Card. If the doctor doesn’t feel you qualify, then the entire cost of an appointment will be a nominal flat fee. And if you reserve an evaluation now, you’ll even save $25 off the cost of your evaluation. You have nothing to lose, and nothing but potential relief to gain!
Doctors Who Care.
Relief You Can Trust.
We’re dedicated to helping all people safely and conveniently find relief and wellness through access to medical marijuana. By focusing on education and inclusion, we hope to reduce the stigma surrounding cannabis and those who want to use it to enhance their health.
If you have any questions, call us at (833) 781-7755, or simply reserve a medical marijuana evaluation today!