Project 465620

The most common motives of use of cannabis for medical purposes include PTSD, a condition that is overrepresented in veterans. Studies on cannabis and its effects have been highly inconsistent and methodologically diverse, and there are important gaps in our understanding of the risks and benefits of cannabis. Moreover, significant concerns have been raised about the effectiveness and safety of cannabis use specifically for PTSD. Thus, there is a clear need to obtain more information about the types and quantities of cannabinoids that are being consumed by individuals with lived experience of PTSD. This year, we launched a pan-Canadian online survey to better understand the nature and heterogeneity of patterns of use, experiences and mental health profiles linked to cannabis use in veterans with PTSD. Through a targeted recruitment approach via the Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC) mail list, we are currently recruiting over 800 veterans receiving disability benefits related to PTSD to enquire about parameters of their cannabis use and subjective outcomes related to PTSD and related mental and physical health factors. In the current application, we propose to create a prospective longitudinal cohort of cannabis users in order to identify demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as parameters of cannabis use that are predictive of long-term mental and physical health trajectories in veterans with a history of PTSD. This will be done through follow-up online surveys to track changes in mental health, pain, global physical health, sleep and cognition over a course of one year in veterans using cannabis as compared to those who do not. In addition, a subset of this cohort will take part in multidimensional physiological monitoring to investigate the immediate and long-term correlates of different profiles of cannabis use and how they relate to indices of mental and physical health.