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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder & Cannabis: An Epidemiologic and Genetic Narrative Review

Publicada
Servidor
Preprints.org
DOI
10.20944/preprints202606.0086.v1

Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a trauma- and stressor-related disorder associated with intrusion symptoms that stem from exposure to a traumatic environmental event. Complex psychiatric disorders such as PTSD have a variety of causal triggers, including, but not limited to, environmental factors, genetic predisposition, and epigenetic modification events. PTSD is commonly treated with talk therapy and antidepressant medication to help reduce symptom severity. Cannabis is a potential treatment, or adjunct treatment option, in mitigating symptomatology of intrusions. Methods: Literature analysis was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar to investigate epidemiological and genetic data pertaining to PTSD and cannabis use. All articles referenced are primary source peer-reviewed research articles and were not limited to the United States. Results: Lower-income demographics and military veterans demonstrated a significantly higher prevalence of PTSD, while higher-income demographics demonstrated a higher prevalence of cannabis use. Cannabis was effective in the short-term reduction of self-reported baseline symptoms associated with PTSD. However, long-term baselines remained seemingly unaffected. Small subsets of populations of individuals reported worsening symptom severity when taking cannabis, so the idea of this as a universal treatment is not supported. PTSD is a common certifying condition for medical marijuana in many states, including Pennsylvania, where it ranked third (54,858), only behind anxiety disorders (309,443) and chronic pain (162,561) in 2025. Psychiatric disorders tend to be comorbid with other mental disorders due to genotypic factors as well, and PTSD generally has comorbidity with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The intersection between diagnosis and treatment can be complicated when managing multiple closely related disorders, so having a short-term mitigation option with minimal therapeutic lag could prove to be considerably valuable. Conclusion: As one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric conditions, PTSD and its treatment options remain appreciably complex. There has been no magic bullet treatment to eliminate the onset or symptoms entirely. Cannabis has demonstrated considerable prospects in short-term symptom reduction in those suffering from intrusion symptoms without altering long-term baselines negatively. As it stands now, cannabis therapy would serve best as a form of adjunct therapy to aid in symptom severity mitigation. However, substantial research is still needed to further assess variations in dosage and mode of administration.

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