Unhealthy Cannabis Use Among Recreational And Medical Cannabis Users With Type 1 Diabetes

Background: Cannabis is widely used among patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Colorado. Despite increasing use of cannabis among patients with T1D, the frequency and characteristics of unhealthy cannabis use are unknown. We investigated the differences in unhealthy cannabis use in recreational and medical cannabis users with T1D.Methods: Adult cannabis users with T1D completed an in-person questionnaire regarding their cannabis use patterns. They further divided into 2 categories; recreational and medical users. Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R) was used to identify unhealthy cannabis use (CUDIT-R >= 8). Characteristics of cannabis users and unhealthy cannabis use between recreational and medical cannabis users were compared using unpaired t test.Results: Out of 117 patients, 85 patients reported recreational and 32 patients reported medical cannabis use. Based on CUDIT-R scores, 37.6% of adults with T1D had unhealthy cannabis use. Frequency of cannabis use >= 4 times a week was higher among medical users compared to recreational users (59.4% vs 28.2%, P < 0.01). There was no difference between the groups in duration of cannabis use. There was no difference in mean overall CUDIT-R score (7.14 vs 7.5, P= 0.76) between recreational and medical cannabis users. There were also no significant differences in mean CUDIT-R score between recreational and medical users within the nonhazardous use category (3.70 vs 4.4, P= 0.15) and unhealthy cannabis use category (12.84 vs 12.67, P= 0.92).Conclusions: Our study showed no difference in unhealthy cannabis use among recreational and medical cannabis users with T1D. Unhealthy cannabis use should be considered among users with T1D regardless of the reason for its use.