More and more countries are letting doctors use medical dagga to help people with long-lasting pain. But, using dagga just for fun has been connected to heart problems. That’s why it’s important to check if medical dagga, prescribed by a doctor, is safe.
To do this, researchers in Denmark looked at the records of people with long-lasting pain who started using medical dagga between 2018 and 2021. They matched these people with others who were similar in age, gender, type of pain, and also used other pain medicines. They wanted to see if there were more heart problems in those using medical dagga compared to those who didn’t.
Out of almost 1.9 million people with long-lasting pain, about 5,391 started using medical dagga. Most of these people were women, and their average age was 59 years old. They were compared with about 26,941 others who didn’t use medical dagga. The researchers found that those using medical dagga were more likely to have heart rhythm problems (arrhythmia) in the first 6 months of starting treatment. About 0.8% of those using medical dagga had arrhythmia compared to 0.4% of those who didn’t use it. This means that using medical dagga doubled the risk of heart rhythm problems. However, there wasn’t a clear link between using medical dagga and having a heart attack (acute coronary syndrome). So, for people with long-lasting pain, using medical dagga might increase the risk of heart rhythm problems, especially in the first 6 months of treatment.
Read the full study at the link below:
