The relationship between opium and marijuana addiction and ischemic stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Drug use is one of the biggest problems in many countries of the world. Addiction has many negative consequences for the users. One of the most important effects of drugs on the brain and causing ischemic stroke is that due to the heterogeneous and different results of these studies, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between opium and marijuana addiction and ischemic stroke through a systematic review and meta-analysis. In this study, electronic database namely PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar search engine were systematically utilised, until February 2023. In order to evaluate the quality of the studies, the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used Data analysis was conducted using Random Effects model. The heterogeneity of the studies was evaluated by the I2 index. In the review of 7 studies with a sample size of 3,312,141 individuals, the odds ratio obtained for the association between marijuana use and ischemic stroke was 1.36 (95% CI: 0.96-1.92). The odds ratio obtained for the association between opium use and ischemic stroke was 2.16 (95% CI: 1.15-4.06). According to the results obtained from current paper's meta-analysis, there is a relationship between marijuana and opium addiction and ischemic stroke. Therefore, informing the society about the effects of drugs on the brain and causing ischemic strokes, especially in adolescents and youth, and providing care and counselling measures can be effective in reducing drug use and its effects on causing ischemic strokes.