Marijuana, Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, and Pain in the Urologic Patient

To describe marijuana's clinical role for urologic symptoms.

Studies related to marijuana, voiding dysfunction, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), and pain through January 2019 from PubMed were evaluated for relevance and quality.

Forty-eight studies were reviewed. Cannabinoids have mixed efficacy for neurogenic LUTS and little evidence for non-neurogenic LUTS, chronic non-cancer-related and perioperative pain. For cancer-related pain, high-level studies demonstrate cannabinoids are well-tolerated with unclear benefit.

Cannabinoids appear well-tolerated in the short-term, but their efficacy and long-term impact is unproven and unknown in urologic discomfort. Cannabinoids for urologic symptoms should be further explored with well-designed randomized controlled trials.