In a recent study from Colorado, researchers found that patients who regularly use cannabis may require more than two times the usual level of sedation when undergoing medical procedures.
In the study, the team examined the medical records of 250 patients who received endoscopic procedures after 2012, when the state legalized recreational cannabis.
They found patients who smoked or ingested cannabis on a daily or weekly basis required 14% more fentanyl, 20% more midazolam, and 220% more propofol to achieve optimum sedation for routine procedures, including colonoscopy.
The team says some of the sedative medications have dose-dependent side effects, meaning the higher the dose, the greater likelihood of problems.
That becomes particularly dangerous when the suppressed respiratory function is a known side effect.
The researchers believe that cannabis has some metabolic effects they don’t understand and patients need to know that their cannabis use might make other medications less effective.
Previous research has shown that chronic nausea is a symptom that can occur from regular cannabis use.
Patients require much higher dosages for general anesthesia and higher rates of post-op seizures.
Adding specific questions regarding cannabis use to patient intake forms is the first step to acquiring useful information that influences patient care.
If you care about cannabis, please read studies about cannabis use linked to more heart attacks, and high-potency cannabis may affect your memory functions.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies that this 5-minute workout can lower blood pressure as much as drugs, and results show this common chemical in food may harm your blood pressure.
The research is published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association and was conducted by Mark Twardowski et al.
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