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

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

They rapidly 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 folks contaminated with the virus more likely to turn into critically ailing and even die. However one steered 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 Faculty 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 information of 72,501 folks seen for COVID-19 at well being facilities in a serious Midwestern health-care system throughout 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 have been considerably extra prone to want hospitalization and intensive care than have been folks 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 isn’t as unhealthy on your well being as smoking or ingesting, that it could even be good for you,” mentioned senior creator Li-Shiun Chen, MD, DSc, a professor of psychiatry.

“I feel 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 shouldn’t be innocent within the context of COVID-19. Individuals who reported sure to present hashish use, at any frequency, have been extra prone to require hospitalization and intensive care than those that didn’t use hashish.”

Hashish use was completely different than tobacco smoking in a single key consequence measure: survival. Whereas people who smoke have 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 unbiased impact of hashish is much like the unbiased impact of tobacco relating to the danger of hospitalization and intensive care,” Chen mentioned. “For the danger of loss of life, tobacco danger is obvious however extra proof is required for hashish.”

The examine analyzed deidentified digital well being information of people that have been seen for COVID-19 at BJC HealthCare hospitals and clinics in Missouri and Illinois between Feb 1, 2020, and Jan 31, 2022. The information contained knowledge on demographic traits reminiscent of intercourse, age and race; different medical circumstances reminiscent of diabetes and coronary heart illness; use of drugs 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 that they had used hashish within the earlier 12 months have 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 circumstances, date of analysis, and demographic components. For comparability, tobacco people who smoke with COVID-19 have been 72% extra prone to be hospitalized and 22% extra prone to require intensive care than have been nonsmokers, after adjusting for different components.

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

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

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

That is not to say that taking edibles could be safer than smoking joints. Additionally it is doable that hashish, which is thought to suppress the immune system, undermines the physique’s potential to struggle off viral infections irrespective of how it’s consumed, the researchers famous.

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

“Individuals have 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 completely different, however we will not know the way a lot hashish you need to 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.”