[paxys]

Title says "helps" but the summary says "it doesn’t effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD". Big difference between the two IMO.

Plenty of people use cannabis to alleviate symptoms. I don't think they expect to be cured entirely. Getting a good night's sleep or being without chronic pain for a few hours is often enough.

[charles_f]

Beyond the semantics, this is what the meta analysis(1) actually says in the abstract

> There were insufficient data to meta-analyse studies of ADHD, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and tobacco use disorder. There was an absence of RCT evidence for the treatment of depression. Meta-analysis revealed higher odds of all-cause adverse events (OR 1·75, 95% CI 1·25 to 2·46) among those using cannabis versus control group

The paper says there's no evidence of effectiveness in treatment, and evidence of harm.

1: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0...

[zug_zug]

It sounds to me like you didn't understand the paper at all, or are worse willfully misrepresenting.

The paper says "insufficient data" for helpfulness for most positive categories (but leans more positive than negative just doesn't reach 95% confidence), but also insufficient data on most negative categories. It finds 5 conditions it's helpful for, and 3 it hurts for.

[charles_f]

I'm directly quoting the portion of the abstract related to anxiety and depression, tell me how that's misrepresenting?

> There was an absence of RCT evidence for the treatment of depression.

> Meta-analysis revealed higher odds of all-cause adverse events (OR 1·75, 95% CI 1·25 to 2·46) among those using cannabis versus control group

And my point was that the paper talks about absence of data about efficacy on treatment so arguing on helping vs. curing in interpreting it is moot.

[zug_zug]

> I'm directly quoting the portion of the abstract related to anxiety and depression, tell me how that's misrepresenting?

No you aren't

You said "The paper says there's no evidence of effectiveness in treatment, and evidence of harm." which is a completely inaccurate summary.

[blackqueeriroh]

The abstract is not the full study. This is why people should have training in research methods before saying they know how to understand research papers

[roywiggins]

It's a meta-study and came to the conclusion that there isn't reliable evidence that it alleviates symptoms of a bunch of stuff:

> There were no significant effects on outcomes associated with anxiety, anorexia nervosa, psychotic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and opioid use disorder. There were insufficient data to meta-analyse studies of ADHD, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and tobacco use disorder. There was an absence of RCT evidence for the treatment of depression.

[contravariant]

They have some more useful figures in the paper, but for a lot of things they're essentially saying there is not enough evidence to support using cannabis yet.

The strongest claim is the lack of significant effects for anxiety, ptsd etc. but it varies a bit whether that's because the effect is too small or because it is not studied enough.

For anxiety for instance the effect they list in the paper is quite big but the error bars are even bigger so the net result is inconclusive. This is quite different from PTSD where they note little to no effect with small error bars.

[bfivyvysj]

I don't think I've ever heard that cannabis was a treatment for PTSD let alone a good one.

Is this paper trying to confuse people about psilocybin?

[contravariant]

The paper is just listing studies that happened. There might be a political agenda behind it, but identifying a study about cannabis use for PTSD and drawing conclusions about the results is what you would expect this review to do. Leaving studies out is much more suspicious.

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

How many veterans do you know? How many veterans that you know use cannabis to treat their PTS? I guess I might be living in a bubble but there are plenty of videos of veterans and others talking about how exactly it is that they use cannabis for PTS. I recommend watching some.

[swed420]

> Title says "helps" but the summary says "it doesn’t effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD". Big difference between the two IMO.

Exactly.

People looking for long term solutions to those issues need to address the root cause(s), which often requires therapy, lifestyle alterations, and work on the self. Change doesn't happen overnight, and it might even take a few tries to find the right therapist.

[tombert]

> Plenty of people use cannabis to alleviate symptoms. I don't think they expect to be cured entirely.

Obviously can't speak for everyone, but I know people who do think literally that. They think that weed will actually cure their depression, and they'll allude to some studies about it that I'm pretty sure don't exist and that they just made up.

[smt88]

"Treat" != "cure"