October/November 2023 - 31

Therapy Focus
of a repeated positive test. I do still believe that
institutional testing can be very helpful but not for the
purpose of 'catching' athletes with marijuana in their
system, " Konin continued. " Rather identify marijuana
to better educate one-on-one how it is impacting an
individual's identity in their sports performance and
other aspects of their life including the classroom and
home situation. In many of these cases, it does serve as
the impetus for those who can benefit from professional
counseling to better cope with their life challenges
and potentially offset what is known as cannabis
use disorders. "
ALREADY IN USE
A quarter of university athletes report using
cannabis-related products (Docter et al., 2020).
Especially in contact sports like rugby, the use rate of
CBD is 28%, increasing with age, and reporting pain
relief and sleep quality improvements as perceived
benefits (Kasper et al., 2020).
Joanna Zeiger, a former Olympic triathlete and
epidemiologist, conducted a 2019 survey to learn
more about the prevalence of common cannabis use
among athletes and how it was being used. The study,
published in the journal PLOS One, involved canvassing
more than 1,200 athletes from a variety of sports and
levels to explore their patterns of cannabis use, its
benefits, and any adverse reactions.
" On a research level, everything prior to our work was
focused on negative outcomes, " she said. " I decided to
position our work to study cannabis in a neutral manner
and look at the positive effects as well, with an ultimate
goal of helping people figure out the right dosage with
the least number of side effects. "
The study found that 26% of the athletes had used
cannabis over the defined two-week time period, and
67% had used it in their lifetimes. About 61% of the
respondents said they had used the drug for pain, and
of those, 68% reported relief.
CBD WITH PT?
" When we looked at the positive effects of cannabis
for this population, sleep, pain levels, and the ability
to calm down were the most common areas where
athletes saw improvement, " Zeiger said. " A small
percentage did have adverse reactions, such as
difficulty concentrating and increased anxiety. "
CBD use has been shown to have specific properties
that help to treat chronic pain, spasticity, mood and
sleep disorders, immunodepression, inflammation,
oxidant effects, and anxiety in clinical patients
(McPartland et al., 2015; Whiting et al., 2015; Nichols
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October/November 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October/November 2023