Marijuana eases HIV/AIDS symptoms

SAN FRANCISCO, June 4 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say HIV/AIDS patients using marijuana rated it as effective as mainstream drugs for symptoms.

The study, published in Clinical Nursing Research, also finds HIV/AID patients in the United States were more likely to use marijuana than patients in Kenya, South Africa or Puerto Rico.

In conducting the longitudinal, multi-country, multi-site, randomized study, the University of California, San Francisco, International HIV/AIDS Nursing Research Network researchers used four different evaluation tools to survey demographics and the self-care management strategies for six symptoms common to those living with HIV/AIDS.

The researchers say marijuana use for symptom management is vastly higher in the United States, or participants elsewhere chose not to disclose that they use it. Nine out of 10 study participants who said they used marijuana lived in the United States. No African participants said they used marijuana, and the remaining 10 percent were from Puerto Rico.

The researchers say as previously found, those who used marijuana were less likely to comply with their regime of medication; however, those who used marijuana to target a particular symptom were actually more likely to stick closely to their regimen.