Articulo Cientifico Ingless
Articulo Cientifico Ingless
Articulo Cientifico Ingless
ABSTRACT:
A shocking population of Americans and Canadians succumb
to opioid addiction daily. In response to this, various
interventions including pharmaceutical therapies have been
put in place to address overdose prevention. However, the
adoption of pharmaceutical interventions such as the use of
buprenorphine, α2-adrenergic agonists, and antiemetic’s pose
the risk of harmful drug interaction and overdose. As such,
Cannabis sativa (marijuana) is considered an adjunct therapy
for opioid addiction due to its safety and efficacy. The present
paper explores the benefits and potential effects of marijuana
as a therapeutic option in treating opioid addiction. The study
conducted a systematic literature review of published journals
in America and Canada related to the use of marijuana for
management of opioid addiction. Medical databases such as
CINAHL, Cochrane, and PubMed were used to identify peer-
reviewed articles between 2014 and 2018. The PRISMA flow
diagram was used to identify and document the number of
articles eligible for the research. 1,608 records were identified
out of which 30 full-text articles were screened for eligibility.
Out of the 30 items, 10 full-text articles met the inclusion
criteria. These reported the safety and efficacy of the use of
medical cannabis in managing opioid addiction. In essence,
marijuana suppresses cravings induced by opiates and
controls opioid withdrawal syndromes. However, cannabis
may result in non-serious effects such as disorientation,
lethargy, hallucinations, and confusion. The current literature
review concludes that the use of marijuana for opioid
addiction is safe and effective. Certainly, insufficient literature
is available to establish the benefits and harms of medical
cannabis as a therapy option for opioid addiction.
KEYWORDS:
INTRODUCTION:
Background
The use of opioids dramatically increased during the 1990s
following relaxed regulations on the need for the drug to
function in pain management. However, as the indication of
opiates gained traction, more parallel use of the drug
especially for addiction raised more concerns about its
benefits compared to the harm it poses. The flop in the earlier
realization of its peril thus leads to increased opioids related
deaths. In the United States, prescription opioid-related
overdoses stand as the current leading incidences of
preventable deaths. On average, 91 Americans are killed
every day due to opioid-related drug overdoses. Canada, a
second country after the US, records an increased pattern of
the use and abuse of opioids. For instance, Canada is
reported to have had about 2,400 incidences of opioid-related
deaths in 2016 alone. As such, following these incidences, it
is apparent that the use of prescription opioids are associated
with addiction that pits more harm on the use of the drug for
pain management compared to its benefits. Besides, a
growing toll related to the opioid dependence in the United
States, Canada, and the world as a whole necessitates a
diversity of novel harm-reduction interventions.
Evidence from research indicates that
conventional pharmaceutical intervention on opioid addiction
through the use of buprenorphine and methadone pose the
risk of harmful drug interaction and related overdose. Equally,
other drugs used to manage opioid withdrawal syndrome such
as benzodiazepines, α2-adrenergic agonists, and antiemetics
do not treat the underlying medical condition. Instead, the
intervention increases problems including addiction and
burden to a number of medications used, which limits
longterm treatment options for these patients. As such, the
current research affirms the effectiveness of Cannabis
sativa (marijuana) as a suitable therapeutic option for the
management of opioidbased addictions and treating chronic
pain. Marijuana has for long been used as a recreational drug
but not readily indicated for medicinal purposes. Even though
clinical trials indicate promising results on the use of the drug
for pain management, it is not currently approved for acute or
chronic pain.
Conventional research on cannabis affirms that the drug can
be effective in opioid-induced pain relief and treatment of
opioid addiction. The use of marijuana reduces cravings for
heroin addicts while at the same time manages the withdrawal
symptoms associated with the addiction to opiates. However,
despite these benefits, the use of cannabis might pose
adverse effects and related risk of addiction. It is therefore
essential to conduct expanded research to assess the
potential benefits and risk profile associated with the use of
marijuana for treatment of opioid addiction.
Materials used
The research used information sources developed from
searching medical subject headings (Mesh) and text words
related to the use of medical cannabis for treatment of opioid
addiction on selected databases. Information sources were
explored in medical databases following the PRISMA
guideline. Systematic literature reviews were searched on the
Cochrane Library, CINHAL, EMBASE, Medline, PubMed, and
Google Scholar. So as to identify systematic reviews, the
study used search terms combined with appropriate Boolean
operators which included the subject heading terms for three
key aspects: medical cannabis AND analgesics (opioid OR
painkiller) AND addiction (non-medical use OR misuse).
The study selection and screening method used a PRISMA
flow diagram as illustrated in the figure below. In the search,
totaling to 1608 unique hits, 1578 search articles were
removed leading to a screening of 30 full-text journals. Out of
these, 8 full-text papers were excluded since they used non-
randomized control trials. Out of the 22 remaining articles, 7
were of low quality while 5 were of moderate quality and 10
yielded results of high quality.
The data in each of the studies were summarized as per the
following aspects: databases used, journal name, name of the
author, year of publication, theme of systematic reviews
(opioid misuse and marijuana therapies) and review period.
Apparently, the data extraction process included systematic
review articles, studied population, and the summary of
findings in each study. A narrative approach was used to
collect information on medical cannabis intervention for
outcome analysis
Figure 1: PRISMA Flow Diagram for the Number of
Documents Identified, Screened, and Assessed for Eligibility
and Reasons for Exclusion.
RESULST:
DISCUSSION:
CONCLUSION:
Opioid epidemic remains a public health concern in the United
States of America and Canada. Nonetheless, evidence
regarding the efficacy of the use of medical cannabis for
managing opioid addiction continues to accrue. However, the
ability of marijuana to interfere with opioid addiction
biochemistry is intriguing and remains obscure due to limited
research on the topic. Besides, the use of cannabis as an
alternative to opioids for pain management requires additional
empirical research attention to reduce the potential harms of
opioid addictions. Even though medical cannabis possesses
associated risks, its severity is less when used to treat opioid
addiction. Moreover, self-medication using marijuana
decreases anxiety for opiate addiction, and potentials harms
of opioids are remarkably reduced. Hence, in the long term,
the use of marijuana as an adjunct therapy for opioid
dependence can decrease opioid-related morbidity and
mortality in addition to reducing the overall burden on the
health care system.
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