Diagnoses of CUD have increased among US adults in recent years, and especially among those with psychiatric conditions. Recent changes in cannabis laws have increased cannabis availability, and may have further increased the risk of those already susceptible to CUD to develop the condition. In the current study, researchers set out to investigate whether rates of CUD vary among veterans depending on whether or not they have psychiatric disorders.
To do so, they analyzed health records from the US-based Veterans Health Administration (VHA) from 2005 to 2019. In particular, they focused on veterans with depressive, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar, and psychotic spectrum disorders, and compared them to veterans without mental health disorders.
Ultimately, they found that rates of CUD more than doubled among all patients during the study period. However, the greatest increases were seen among veterans with comorbid psychiatric disorders, especially those with bipolar and psychotic-spectrum disorders. They further found that CUD prevalence was disproportionately higher among veterans aged 35 and under between 2005 and 2014, and veterans over 64 years old between 2016 and 2019.
The researchers noted that several factors may explain their observations, including greater availability of cannabis, increasing legalization, changing public attitudes, and increasingly potent cannabis products. They added that greater availability may also mean that patients with bipolar or psychotic-spectrum disorders use cannabis to self-medicate, although the practice is ‘inadvisable.’
“The findings highlight disproportionately increasing disparities in risk of cannabis use disorder among VHA patients with common psychiatric disorders. Greater public health and clinical efforts are needed to monitor, prevent, and treat cannabis use disorder in this population,” concluded the researchers in their study.
Sources: EurekAlert, The American Journal of Psychiatry
