Legal Marijuana Linked To Drop In Anxiety Medications: What It Means For Pharma Giants
In states where both medical and recreational marijuana are legal, patients are filling fewer prescriptions for medications commonly used to treat anxiety, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.
The findings consistently showed that increased access to marijuana correlates with reductions in benzodiazepine prescription fills, which refer to the number of prescriptions picked up by patients, not the number written by doctors.
Lead author Ashley Bradford, PhD, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, noted that the research is particularly relevant given that nearly 23% of U.S. adults reported having a diagnosable mental health disorder in 2021, but only 65% of them received treatment.
Expanding cannabis access offers an alternative treatment avenue, especially as many state medical marijuana laws …