Grant: Cat Grant: Cannabis Research in Urgent Priority Areas-Cannabis and Mental Health

Older adults represent the fastest growing segment in society. While researchers have increasingly devoted time to studying the health effects of cannabis use in young adults, the extent of information about its effects in older adults is limited. With the legalization of cannabis in Canada, there is likely to be an increase in its use in older adults. Given that older adults have slower metabolism, possess an increased likelihood of polypharmacy (i.e., use of multiple drug therapies, which may increase risk of drug interactions), experience cognitive decline, have more chronic medical, mental and physical health problems and can experience sudden lifestyle changes, there exists a variety of reasons for which cannabis may have different effects on health, brain and behavior outcomes in this population. To be prepared to address aspects of both policy and treatment, our partnering organizations have identified this as an important knowledge gap for which they need more information. In the planned research, we will therefore use well established methods to carry out a structured review of the medical literature to summarize existing research related to the following questions: 1.What are the effects of medical and non-medical cannabis use in older adults in terms of health, brain, behavior and pharmacokinetic outcomes? 2.Are there differences in the effects of medical and non-medical cannabis use in certain subgroups of older adults, including those with co-morbid mental health and physical health conditions (e.g. chronic pain, depression, cognitive decline), those using other prescription or illicit substances (e.g. polypharmacy), and those using different consumption methods (e.g., smoking, vapourizing, oils, etc)? 3. Based on feedback generated from an end of grant prioritization exercise involving the research team, our knowledge users and people with lived experience, what are the priority topics for future systematic reviews? For primary research studies?