Study finds connection between cannabis use and increased risk of severe COVID-19

Because the lethal illness that got here to be generally known as COVID-19 began spreading in late 2019, scientists rushed to reply a important query: Who’s most in danger?

They shortly acknowledged {that a} handful of traits—together with age, smoking historical past, excessive physique mass index (BMI) and the presence of different illnesses reminiscent of diabetes—made individuals contaminated with the virus more likely to develop into critically ailing and even die. However one prompt danger issue stays unconfirmed greater than 4 years later: hashish use. Proof has emerged over time indicating each protecting and dangerous results.

Now, a brand new examine by researchers at Washington College College of Drugs in St. Louis factors decisively to the latter: Hashish is linked to an elevated danger of significant sickness for these with COVID-19.

The examine, published June 21 in JAMA Community Open, analyzed the well being data of 72,501 individuals seen for COVID-19 at well being facilities in a serious Midwestern health-care system in the course of the first two years of the pandemic. The researchers discovered that individuals who reported utilizing any type of hashish at the very least as soon as within the 12 months earlier than growing COVID-19 had been considerably extra prone to want hospitalization and intensive care than had been individuals with no such historical past. This elevated danger of extreme sickness was on par with that from smoking.

“There’s this sense among the many public that hashish is secure to make use of, that it is not as unhealthy in your well being as smoking or consuming, that it might even be good for you,” stated senior writer Li-Shiun Chen, MD, DSc, a professor of psychiatry.

“I believe that is as a result of there hasn’t been as a lot analysis on the well being results of hashish as in comparison with tobacco or alcohol. What we discovered is that hashish use is just not innocent within the context of COVID-19. Individuals who reported sure to present hashish use, at any frequency, had been extra prone to require hospitalization and intensive care than those that didn’t use hashish.”

Hashish use was totally different than tobacco smoking in a single key consequence measure: survival. Whereas people who smoke had been considerably extra prone to die of COVID-19 than nonsmokers—a discovering that matches with quite a few different research—the identical was not true of hashish customers, the examine confirmed.

“The impartial impact of hashish is much like the impartial impact of tobacco relating to the chance of hospitalization and intensive care,” Chen stated. “For the chance of dying, tobacco danger is evident however extra proof is required for hashish.”

The examine analyzed deidentified digital well being data of people that had been seen for COVID-19 at BJC HealthCare hospitals and clinics in Missouri and Illinois between Feb 1, 2020, and Jan 31, 2022. The data contained knowledge on demographic traits reminiscent of intercourse, age and race; different medical situations reminiscent of diabetes and coronary heart illness; use of gear together with tobacco, alcohol, hashish and vaping; and outcomes of the sickness—particularly, hospitalization, intensive-care unit (ICU) admittance and survival.

COVID-19 sufferers who reported that they’d used hashish within the earlier 12 months had been 80% extra prone to be hospitalized and 27% extra prone to be admitted to the ICU than sufferers who had not used hashish, after making an allowance for tobacco smoking, vaccination, different well being situations, date of analysis, and demographic elements. For comparability, tobacco people who smoke with COVID-19 had been 72% extra prone to be hospitalized and 22% extra prone to require intensive care than had been nonsmokers, after adjusting for different elements.

These outcomes contradict another analysis suggesting that hashish could assist the physique battle off viral illnesses reminiscent of COVID-19.

“A lot of the proof suggesting that hashish is nice for you comes from research in cells or animals,” Chen stated. “The benefit of our examine is that it’s in individuals and makes use of real-world health-care knowledge collected throughout a number of websites over an prolonged time interval. All of the outcomes had been verified: hospitalization, ICU keep, dying. Utilizing this knowledge set, we had been in a position to verify the well-established results of smoking, which means that the info are dependable.”

The examine was not designed to reply the query of why hashish use may make COVID-19 worse. One chance is that inhaling marijuana smoke injures delicate lung tissue and makes it extra susceptible to an infection, in a lot the identical means that tobacco smoke causes lung harm that places individuals vulnerable to pneumonia, the researchers stated.

That is not to say that taking edibles can be safer than smoking joints. It’s also attainable that hashish, which is understood to suppress the immune system, undermines the physique’s means to battle off viral infections regardless of how it’s consumed, the researchers famous.

“We simply do not know whether or not edibles are safer,” stated first writer Nicholas Griffith, MD, a medical resident at Washington College. Griffith was a medical pupil at Washington College when he led the examine.

“Folks had been requested a yes-or-no query: ‘Have you ever used hashish up to now 12 months?’ That gave us sufficient data to ascertain that in the event you use hashish, your health-care journey will probably be totally different, however we won’t know the way a lot hashish you must use, or whether or not it makes a distinction whether or not you smoke it or eat edibles. These are questions we might actually just like the solutions to. I hope this examine opens the door to extra analysis on the well being results of hashish.”