Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2013
Source: Michigan Daily (U of MI, Edu)
Copyright: 2013 The Michigan Daily
Contact: http://www.michigandaily.com/letters/
Website: http://www.michigandaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/582
Author: Ariana Assaf

UNIVERSITY STUDY TO EXAMINE EFFECTS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The use of medical marijuana as a pain reliever has long been of high
interest to activists, scientists and policymakers. Appealing to these
interests, a new study at the University will work to determine the
exact benefits medical marijuana may offer to those who suffer from
various medical afflictions.

Michigan, which legalized medical marijuana in 2008, has 135,267
patients registered to buy and use the drug, according to the Michigan
Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. The state is one of
the 18, along with Washington D.C., to have legalized medical marijuana.

Researchers plan to identify 800 participants by approaching new
patients who have already made the decision to become a registered
medical marijuana user in Michigan. Interested participants cannot
contact the researchers.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse donated $2.2 million towards the
fulfillment of this project. The available funds will be used to
compensate participants for their time, pay support staff and support
the infrastructure needed to conduct such research.

Data collection will occur over the span of two years, during which
the researchers will follow up with participants about their pain and
health levels since becoming registered medical marijuana users. The
follow-up procedures will take place every six months and will be
conducted by researchers in-person.

Mark Ilgen, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Medical School
and leader of the study, said although researchers had been interested
in carrying out this kind of study for a while, writing grants and
scrutinizing the details delayed the procedure.

However, now that plans to carry out the study have been made, he said
his team was "very excited."

Some studies already exist to determine the potential efficacy of
medical marijuana as a pain reliever, but they are often similar to
studies that examine other pain-relief medications and do not take
into account long-term results or the overall quality of life of
participants.

"We plan to identify people seeking a card for a first time, get data
on how they're functioning and feeling when they show up to the clinic
(for the first time), and track changes over two years," Ilgen said.

Unlike other studies, this research methodology will not rely on a
control group, but will instead identify subgroups of people by
clustering those with similar characteristics -- such as symptoms and
levels of functionality.

Given the lack of adequate information and guidelines for medical
advisors when prescribing medical marijuana, Ilgen said there was all
the more need for a "neutral information" standard.

"Well-meaning providers felt that there wasn't a lot of data behind
the use of medical marijuana as a pain reliever," he said. "(They
found ) there aren't a lot of clear guidelines about what advice
treatment advisors should give their patients."

Ilgen added that a concern for the design of the study was the fact
that a lot of the data -- such as pain levels and how participants
were faring in life -- were self-reported, and hence subjective.

However, in future studies, researchers will include more objective
standards such as level of alcohol and other drug use, and number of
visits to the emergency room to determine the effects of medical
marijuana both on patient pain levels and overall functionality.

To add to the existing data, researchers had considered including
reports by family members regarding how participants were doing as
part of the data collection but ultimately decided against it.

"With all these approaches there are pros and cons, and one of the
clear trade offs is the cost to confidentiality to involve anyone else
in the study," Ilgen said.

"We wanted to err on the side of respecting participant
confidentiality, (but) there are a number of interesting directions
this research could go in follow up study like how medical marijuana
use affects a family."

Another idea was to test each participant's marijuana to determine its
potency, but Ilgen said that liability concerns, combined with the
fact that participants may be using different strains, led researchers
to decide against it.

The breadth of available data and the lack of current information
regarding the advantages of medical marijuana called for extensive
research, Ilgen said. The research showed a unique potential as
compared to other projects.

"I've been e-mailed about patients who are really passionate about
this, and that's never happened to me before," he said. "It really
does feel so new and important."

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Correction appended: A previous version of this article misstated that
researchers will include more objective standards such as level of
alcohol and other drug use, and number of visits to the emergency room
in future studies. These more objective standards will be included in
this study.
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MAP posted-by: Matt