Wayne State University has received several state grants to fund research into whether cannabis can be an effective treatment for veterans diagnosed with PTSD.
Leslie Lundahl is a professor at Wayne State’s medical school, and the lead researcher on the largest of three related studies planned. It aims to recruit 350 veterans who will be treated with various forms of cannabis for 12 weeks. Researchers will also follow up with them periodically for up to a year in total.
Lundahl said we know a lot about the risks of cannabis, but much less about its potential benefits. “We also know that many veterans already use it on their own to treat PTSD symptoms “like stress, anxiety, low mood, [and] poor sleep,” she said. “What we don't know is whether cannabis is actually effective.”
Lundahl said this will be one of the very first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials using cannabis. “Our research aims to provide the sort of high-quality clinical data to determine whether cannabis can be a safe and effective treatment option for veterans with PTSD,” she said.
The research is vital, she said, because there are currently very few known effective treatments for PTSD. The most recent data from 2022 show that the veteran suicide rate is almost double that of the overall population. 170 Michigan vets died by suicide that year.
