Medicinal versus recreational cannabis use: Patterns of cannabis use, alcohol use, and cued-arousal among veterans who screen positive for PTSD

- Comparison of medicinal and recreational cannabis using veterans.
- Veterans using medicinal cannabis use more cannabis but drink less alcohol.
- Greater combat exposure, PTSD symptoms, and arousal among medicinal cannabis users.

IntroductionThe present study is the first to test whether veterans who use cannabis specifically for the purposes of self-medication for their reported PTSD symptoms differ from veterans who use cannabis medicinally for other reasons, or recreationally, in terms of patterns of cannabis use, use of alcohol, and reactivity to written combat trauma reminders.MethodsAssessment measures were administered online to a sample of veterans with a history of cannabis use (n = 1971). Cued arousal was assessed pre/post via a prompt about combat experiences. Hypotheses were tested using a series of Bonferroni corrected one-way analyses of variance, t-tests, bivariate and partial correlations, and a Chi-square test.ResultsCompared to recreational users, veterans who identify as medicinal cannabis users reported greater combat exposure (d = 0.56), PTSD symptoms (d = 1.02), subjective arousal when cued (d = 0.25), and cannabis use (dfrequency = 0.40; ddensity = 0.42), but less alcohol use (d = 0.28). Few differences were observed between medicinal users who reported using for PTSD versus those who reported using for other reasons.ConclusionsCompared to those who use cannabis recreationally, veterans who report that they use cannabis medicinally use more cannabis and endorse significantly more symptoms of arousal following a prompt about combat trauma experiences.