VITAL SIGNS

Treatments: A Closer Look at Medical Marijuana

Two studies of the accumulated data on marijuana's medical value have found
mixed results: the drug had some advantages over standard treatments for
severe nausea, but no advantage in reducing severe pain. Both papers were
published this month in The British Medical Journal.

A study on marijuana as a pain medication, led by Dr. Fiona A. Campbell of
Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, England, compared the results of nine
clinical trials involving 222 patients. The researchers concluded that
marijuana-based medications were no better than codeine in managing acute
pain, and had more harmful side effects.

Dr. Martin R. Tramer of the Hospitaux Universitaires in Geneva led a study
on nausea. Reviewing 30 trials involving 1,366 patients, the researchers
concluded that medications containing marijuana were slightly more
effective than the standard antinausea drugs given with chemotherapy.

The marijuana-based drugs produced more side effects, including some, like
euphoria and drowsiness, that might have been desirable to some patients.

Patients who used both a standard drug and a marijuana-based drug preferred
the marijuana compound by a large margin, the researchers said. They wrote
that they did not know whether pleasant side effects could account for the
patients' overwhelming preference for marijuana.

The researchers concluded that the evidence could be interpreted two ways.
Patient preference and the superiority of certain effects could support its
use, while side effects and lack of information about marijuana's effects
could work against it.