Marijuana use may help patients with inflammatory bowel disease manage nausea, joint pain, insomnia and other symptoms while improving their quality of life, according to a study published in Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids.

Researchers from the University of Florida surveyed 108 marijuana consumers diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis about their usage patterns, symptoms, medication use and perceptions of marijuana’s effects.

Among respondents, 87.6% said marijuana improved their quality of life, while 61.3% reported that it improved their ability to live independently.

Daily or near-daily use was associated with self-reported relief from several symptoms, including nausea or vomiting among 82.1% of respondents, joint pain among 81% and insomnia among 80%.

Anxiety was the most common reason participants reported using marijuana, cited by 60.2%, followed by joint pain at 54.6% and nausea or vomiting at 53.7%.

Nearly seven in 10 participants reported using marijuana daily or almost daily, and about 60% said they primarily inhaled or smoked it.

A majority of respondents also believed marijuana reduced their reliance on other medications. Approximately 59.3% said their marijuana use had reduced their consumption of opioid or narcotic painkillers.

Most participants, 89.5%, said they felt comfortable disclosing their marijuana use to health care providers. However, just 24.5% said they had received information about potential interactions between marijuana and prescription drugs.

Of those surveyed, 79.6% had Crohn’s disease and 20.4% had ulcerative colitis. Nearly 43% had previously undergone bowel surgery, suggesting that many participants had relatively severe forms of inflammatory bowel disease.

Researchers noted that although these results show a promising trend of cannabis use helping those with fibromyalgia, the findings were based on patients’ self-reported experiences rather than objective measurements of disease activity. The study was also limited by its relatively small sample size, recruitment from a single medical center and the inclusion of only current marijuana consumers, which may have created a positive response bias.

The full text of the study can be found by clicking here.