ReviewAIMS neuroscience2021
Cannabis in the management of PTSD: a systematic review.
Review in AIMS neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy, effectiveness and safety of medical cannabis in PTSD: a scoping review.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Pooled it
- Unhealthy behaviors associated with mental health disorders: a systematic comparative review of diet quality, sedentary behavior, and cannabis and tobacco use.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Association between viewing more media war content and higher intention to use cannabis in adolescents: the indirect effect of post-traumatic stress.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- Enhancing data compatibility in an evolving landscape: Medical cannabis and polysubstance use protocols in the PhenX Toolkit.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Violence Exposure Relates Differently to Blood Pressure and Emotional Health as a Function of Cannabis Use Among Street-Identified Black Americans.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Article
- Medicinal cannabis: is current use clinically justified?Internal medicine journal · 2025Review
- Cannabinoid 1 receptor availability in posttraumatic stress disorder: A positron emission tomography study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Perspectives on Trauma Treatment, Self-Management Strategies, and Attitudes Toward Psychedelic Therapies in Individuals with Psychological Trauma Symptoms.Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Cannabis involvement in posttraumatic stress disorder emergency department visits after cannabis legalization.The American journal on addictions · 2025Article
- The Cost Effectiveness of Adjunctive Medical Cannabis Therapy in the Treatment of Moderate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.Clinical drug investigation · 2025Article
- Evidence synthesis of medical cannabis research: current challenges and opportunities.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Review
- Cannabis Use and Self-Reported Bothersome Symptoms in People with HIV.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2025Article
- Lessons for cannabinoid regulation from electronic nicotine delivery system product regulation.Health affairs scholar · 2024Article
- Australian clinical feasibility considerations for treatment of PTSD with cannabinoid-augmented exposure therapy.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2024Article
- Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A State-of-the-art Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Mental and Physical Health-Related Cannabis Motives Mediate the Relationship between Childhood Trauma and Problematic Cannabis Use over Time among Emerging Adult Cannabis Users.Substance use & misuse · 2024Article
- Medicinal cannabis for psychiatry-related conditions: an overview of current Australian prescribing.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Cannabis-assisted psychotherapy for complex dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder: A case report.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Examining the role of cannabinoids on osteoporosis: a review.Archives of osteoporosis · 2022Review
- Effects of Cannabis on PTSD Recovery: Review of the Literature and Clinical Insights.Current addiction reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionExisting reviews exploring cannabis effectiveness have numerous limitations including narrow search strategies. We systematically explored cannabis effects on PTSD symptoms, quality of life (QOL), and return to work (RTW). We also investigated harm outcomes such as adverse effects and dropouts due to adverse effects, inefficacy, and all-cause dropout rates.
methodsOur search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, Web of Science, CENTRAL, and PubMed databases, yielded 1 eligible RCT and 10 observational studies (n = 4672). Risk of bias (RoB) was assessed with the Cochrane risk of bias tool and ROBINS-I.
resultsEvidence from the included studies was mainly based on non-randomized studies with no comparators. Results from unpooled, high RoB studies showed that cannabis was associated with a reduction in overall PTSD symptoms and improved QOL. Dry mouth, headaches, and psychoactive effects such as agitation and euphoria were the commonly reported adverse effects. In most studies, cannabis was well tolerated, but small proportions of patients experienced a worsening of PTSD symptoms.
conclusionEvidence in the current study primarily stems from low quality and high RoB observational studies. Further RCTs investigating cannabis effects on PTSD treatment should be conducted with larger sample sizes and explore a broader range of patient-important outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.