ED Visits for Cannabis Use Tied to Increased Risk for Incident Anxiety Disorder

Findings show threefold higher risk compared with the general population and even higher risk among young men

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Emergency department visits for cannabis use are associated with an increased three-year risk for having an incident health care visit for an anxiety disorder, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in eClinicalMedicine.

Daniel T. Myran, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues estimated the risk for having an incident health care visit for an anxiety disorder following an emergency department visit (January 2008 to March 2019) for cannabis use. The analysis included 34,822 individuals (aged 10 to 105 years) who had an incident emergency department visit due to cannabis.

The researchers found that within three years of an incident emergency department visit due to cannabis, 12.3 percent of individuals had an incident emergency department visit or hospitalization for an anxiety disorder versus 1.2 percent in the general population (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 3.69). Similar results were seen when further excluding individuals with prior outpatient care for anxiety disorders (aHR, 3.88) and across all age and sex strata. Younger men with emergency department visits for cannabis use had a greater risk relative to the general population than younger women with cannabis use (aHRs, 5.67 and 3.22, respectively).

“These findings have important clinical and policy implications given the increasing use of cannabis over time and trend towards legalization of cannabis,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.