As older adults turn to cannabis to relieve chronic symptoms, or for fun, an increasing number are winding up in emergency rooms with side effects from the drug.
Researchers in California found an 18-fold increase in the rate cannabis-related trips to the emergency department visits among adults over age 65 in the state from 2005 to 2019.
Addressing potential harms of cannabis use among older adults, who face heightened risk for adverse reactions to the substance, "is urgently required," the researchers reported today at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society in Orlando, Florida.
Dr Benjamin Han
The researchers advised doctors to discuss cannabis use with older patients and screen older adults for cannabis use. Those living with multiple chronic conditions and taking multiple medications are especially likely to be at risk for harm, co-investigator Benjamin Han, MD, MPH, a geriatrician at the University of California San Diego, told Medscape Medical News.
Han added that "very little" is understood about the risks and benefits of cannabis use in the elderly, and more studies are needed "so that clinicians can have data-informed discussions with their patients."
California legalized medical marijuana in 1996 and recreational pot in 2016.
The researchers used diagnostic code data from California's nonmilitary acute care hospitals, collected by the state's Department of Healthcare Access and Information, to calculate annual rates of cannabis-related visits per 10,000 emergency department visits.
