Research which was published in the journal Cureus has found that majority of emergency medicine doctors would prefer to prescribe a patient Medical Cannabis over opioids. The study was conducted by American researchers at the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Annual Conference in San Diego from October 1st to 4th, 2018. The study included 539 US physicians.
The study illustrated that 52.3% of physicians would prefer to prescribe Medical Cannabis as a first-line treatment over opioids. Which is based on if there was evidence from medical studies that found Medical Cannabis was equally effective. 79.6% of physicians would prescribe medical cannabis if it were more effective. Researchers also found that 70.7% of physicians think that cannabis has “medical value.”
Researchers have confidence that their data illustrates that doctors want alternative treatment options to opioids and that many consider Medical Cannabis a fantastic alternative. The research concluded their research by saying: We believe our results reflect EM physicians’ desire to have alternative treatment options to the known potentially addictive effects of opioids, understanding the gravity of the opioid epidemic, and the biases of dealing with opioid-related issues in EM. It’s also to be noted that 446,032 people in the US died from opioid-related causes between 1999 and 2018. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 68% of US drug-related deaths in 2017 involved an opioid.
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