Towards a comprehensive understanding of medical conditions among medical cannabis patients in a large database: A descriptive analysis

Introduction Cannabis use for medical purposes has surged in the past decade. However, understanding who medical cannabis patients are and their accompanying health issues remains limited. Methods Utilizing Leafwell patient database (LPD) data from 2022, we describe the demographics and top 15 primary qualifying conditions (PQCs) of medical cannabis patients across 32 states of the United States. We employed descriptive statistics and χ2 tests to discern differences in PQCs across age, sex, and race/ethnicity. We describe the self-reported rank-order (1–5) of co-occurring conditions. Results In 2022, there were 81433 new medical cannabis patients registered in the LPD, 93.2% of whom (n=75904) reported a list of the top 15 PQCs. Leading PQCs were chronic pain (n=24340), anxiety (n=20370), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (n=8517). The top 15 conditions varied across all demographics (p<0.001). Notably, a lower percentage of Hispanics reported chronic pain as their PQC compared to other race/ethnicities; a higher percentage of those aged <21 years reported insomnia as their PQC compared to older age groups. Anxiety and chronic pain were either the first or second PQC or rank-order second condition. Insomnia was a more common rank-order third condition (n=3597) and rank-order fourth condition (n=1796). PTSD was the leading rank-order fifth condition (n=784). Conclusions This study underscores demographic differences across PQCs among a large sample of medical cannabis patients representing data from 36 states of the US. We note patients often report more than one medical condition, suggesting that the reasons for using medical cannabis may be more complex medically than previously understood.