Associations between sources of influence and perceived medical cannabis product effectiveness for chronic pain: A longitudinal study

Kendall R. Robinson
University of Florida

Co-authors: Kendall R Robinson¹, Juan G Perez¹, Robert L Cook¹, Yan Wang^1
1University of Florida

Background: Chronic pain (CP) accounts for a large proportion of medical cannabis (MC) qualifying conditions. Since multiple MC product types are available, patients often rely on various sources of information (healthcare professionals, dispensary staff, peers, personal experiences) to identify products they perceive as effective.

Objective: This study examines how sources of influence are associated with perceived MC product effectiveness for CP.

Methods: Data came from the Florida-based Medical Marijuana & Me (M3) longitudinal study surveying individuals over the first nine months of access to MC. The sample included individuals whose main reason for using MC at baseline was CP: 205 at baseline, 124 at three months, and 113 at nine months. Demographic data were collected at baseline. At each follow-up, participants who identified a perceived most effective method for CP were given a list of product types (flower, vape, capsules/edibles, concentrates, tinctures, topicals, other) and were asked to check all that apply. Participants were also given a list of potential sources of influence on the products they have tried (physicians, medical and dispensary staff, peers, personal experience, online sources, dispensary websites, price, and product sales) and were asked the rate the level of influence from ‘not at all influential’ to ‘extremely influential’. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were conducted at the three- and nine-month timepoints.

Results: At baseline, participants were 74.6% Non-Hispanic White, 66.9% female, and mean age was 45.89. Personal experience and product sales were most reported as being very or extremely influential at both three months (58.9% and 57.3%, respectively) and nine months (60.2% and 61.9%, respectively). At three months, influence from product sales was associated with perceived effectiveness of flower (p=0.03) and capsules/edibles (p=0.03), while influence from dispensary websites (p=0.03) and friends (p=0.004) were associated with perceived effectiveness of concentrates. At nine months, influence from medical staff was associated with perceived effectiveness of capsules/edibles (p=0.03) and concentrates (p=0.048), while influence from price (p=0.049) and product sales (p=0.04) were associated with perceived effectiveness of vapes.

Conclusions: Associations between sources of influence and perceived MC product effectiveness varied by product type and survey timepoint. These findings suggest the need to further examine the role that non-clinical guidance and external influences have on perceived treatment effectiveness. Results should be interpreted with caution due to small sample sizes within each product type and source of influence combination. Future research should utilize longer follow-up and qualitative methodologies to better understand these relationships.