Background The use of cannabis for medical purposes is proliferating in the U. of patients (N=170) at a medical cannabis dispensary in California. Results Those with high PTSD scores were more likely to use cannabis to improve sleep and for coping reasons more generally compared with those with low PTSD scores. Cannabis use frequency was greater among those with high PTSD scores who used for sleep promoting purposes compared with those with low PTSD scores or those who did not use for sleep promoting purposes. Conclusions Consistent Vincristine sulfate Vincristine sulfate with prior research this study found increased rates of coping-oriented use of cannabis and greater frequency of cannabis use among medical users with high PTSD scores compared with low PTSD scores. Vincristine sulfate In addition sleep improvement appears to be a primary motivator for coping-oriented use. Additional research is needed to examine the health consequences of this pattern of cannabis use and whether alternative sleep promoting interventions (e.g. CBT-I) could reduce the reliance on cannabis for adequate sleep among those with PTSD. Rabbit Polyclonal to ARRDC2. to 5 = = 7.09 = 1.37). 2.3 Alcohol Use The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al. 1993 is a 10-item self-report measure of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. A total score is calculated to produce a global measure of problematic alcohol use. Cronbach’s α = .84 in the current sample. 2.3 Depressive Symptoms The Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDAS; Watson et al. 2007 is a 64-item questionnaire measuring depression and anxiety. The General Depression subscale was employed as a measure of depressive symptoms and used as a covariate. Cronbach’s α = .84 in the current sample. 2.4 Data Analysis First a series of t-tests were conducted to examine group (no PTSD versus probable PTSD) differences in terms of cannabis use motives. T-tests were adjusted (= .01) for multiple comparisons. Next we examined the interaction of motive for use (sleep and coping) and group on past 30-day cannabis use. Two Vincristine sulfate separate hierarchical multiple regressions (HMRs) were conducted (one for sleep one for coping motives) in which past 30-day cannabis use served as the outcome variable. Sleep and coping motives were selected as these were the only two motives that were found to vary as a function of PTSD symptom levels. All continuous variables were standardized prior to entry. In Step 1 1 main effects for motive (sleep or coping) and PTSD group were simultaneously entered. In step 2 2 the interaction between motive (sleep or coping) and PTSD group was entered. In step 3 3 alcohol use (AUDIT total score) and depressive symptoms (IDAS General Depression sub-score) were entered as covariates. Variables were entered in this fashion to test whether the obtained results remained after adjusting for relevant covariates while ensuring that interaction effects were not significant merely due to suppression effects of covariates (Simmons et al. 2011 3 RESULTS Results of t-tests indicated that individuals with probable PTSD reported greater motivation to use cannabis for sleep and coping reasons compared to those without PTSD. No associations were found between PTSD and any other motives (see Table 1). In the hierarchical regressions (see Table 1) a significant main effect for sleep motives but not PTSD group was observed in predicting past 30-day cannabis use. Furthermore as predicted the interaction between Vincristine sulfate sleep motives and group was associated with past 30-day cannabis use accounting for 3% of unique variance. After adjusting for covariates in Step 3 3 the interaction remained significant with the entire model accounting for 25.2% of variance in past 30-day cannabis use. In terms of coping motives there was a main effect for coping but not PTSD group. In addition the interaction of PTSD group and coping was non-significant. Table 1 Mean scores for each motive for cannabis use based on group and regression analyses Consistent with recommendations for examining interactions (Aiken and West 1991 post-hoc probing of the significant interaction indicated that sleep motives was positively associated with past 30-day cannabis use among individuals Vincristine sulfate with probable PTSD but not among individuals without PTSD (see Figure 1). Figure 1 Level of.