Medicinal Cannabis, Chronic Pain and Sleep: Efficacy and Safety, Patients’ Perspectives, and Patterns of Use

Abstract

Chronic pain and sleep problems are two prevalent conditions frequently reported by the general population. Despite limited evidence, in recent decades, there has been a rapid rise in the use of Medicinal Cannabis (MC) for managing these two health conditions. Cannabis is increasingly used for therapeutic purposes by Canadians; however, this therapeutic option has largely emerged as a result of legal challenges instead of highquality empirical evidence establishing that the benefits exceed the harms. Furthermore, complicating the use of cannabis as a therapeutic product is its’ recreational use. Canada is the leading per capita consumer of cannabis for recreational use, which has raised concerns among some healthcare providers that patients may seek authorization to use MC for non-medical purposes. Therefore, the current thesis has examined three areas to inform the use of MC based on rigorous quantitative and qualitative approaches. It begins with investigating the efficacy and safety of MC and cannabinoids for impaired sleep through conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Subsequently, it explores patients’ perspective towards MC use for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) using a qualitative approach and finally, it assesses declared rationale for cannabis use before and after legalization for recreational use for therapeutic purposes in Canada.