In this study, we examined the effect of medical cannabis treatment onset among patients with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from a large cohort of medicinal cannabis users in a United States-based panel.

Methods: Using the Leafwell Research Panel, we examined patients with self-reported conditions of PTSD from Jan 2020-June 2023. The Leafwell Research Panel is a database of self-reported baseline and monthly follow-up data provided by medical cannabis users in more than 35 states. We provided the frequency and proportions of patients by various demographics. Further, we evaluated baseline and one-month follow-up symptom severity scores using longitudinal linear regression. We asked patients to rate the severity of their PTSD symptoms on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being ‘No symptoms’ and 10 being ‘very severe symptoms’. We utilized generalized estimating equations (GEE) to understand the population-level effect of medicinal cannabis treatment onset on PTSD symptom severity.

Learning Objectives:

• The onset of medical cannabis treatment was associated with an 18.4% reduction in self-reported symptom severity comparing baseline to one-month follow up data.
• Males, compared to females displayed greater severity score improvements at one-month follow up.