April 2021

This month, Ovidiu, PhD student, shares the results of a recently published study aiming at exploring patient and clinician opinions related to the use of technology-based psychological interventions (e.g., smart phone app) for decreasing cannabis use. Discussions with 10 young adults with first episode psychosis and cannabis use disorder and 10 clinicians revealed important factors that should be addressed to increase the acceptability of technology-based psychological interventions. These factors include patient treatment needs (e.g., stress reduction, higher cannabis knowledge), psychological interventions considered effective by clinicians (e.g., motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural therapy), specific needs from the application (e.g., communication, informational videos, logbook to monitor cannabis use), etc. This study is novel in that it encourages a collaborative approach to treatment by including both patient and clinician opinions and preferences. We encourage you to read and share the article available in Journal of Medical Internet Research Formative Research.