Categories
Uncategorized Uncategorized

April 2024

What do people with psychosis want in cannabis harm reduction interventions?

Up to 60% of young people with psychosis uses cannabis, which is associated with significantly poorer clinical and psychosocial outcomes. While existing cannabis interventions typically focus on abstinence or reduction, effective interventions remain scarce, often hindered by low engagement or retention rates. There is a growing demand for harm reduction interventions that can benefit individuals with persistent cannabis use, though few exist for this population. Integrating patient preferences into intervention design could enhance intervention engagement and effectiveness, though this remains understudied for cannabis interventions tailored for people with psychosis.

To address this knowledge gap, our research team conducted a sophisticated survey including two discrete choice experiments among 89 young people with psychosis who used cannabis across Canada, published in Canadian Journal of Psychiatry this month (1). Study findings showed a preference for cannabis harm reduction interventions that were brief, technology-based and which included post-intervention boosters (particularly shorter ones). Acceptability and preference for other intervention characteristics (e.g., psychological approach used, preferred intervention aims, preferences for technology-based interventions) were also assessed in this study.

This study is one of the first to document patient preferences for cannabis harm reduction interventions. These results informed the development of CHAMPS, a brief, technology-based, cannabis harm reduction intervention tailored for this population recently developed by our team; CHAMPS is currently undergoing evaluation in a pilot randomized controlled trial (2). These survey findings can similarly guide the design of future harm reduction interventions for this population.

 

Article by Stephanie Coronado-Montoya

 

References

1 Coronado-Montoya, S., Abdel-Baki, A., Crockford, D., Côté, J., Dubreucq, S., Dyachenko, A., Fischer, B., Lecomte, T., L’Heureux, S., Ouellet-Plamondon, C., Roy, M.-A., Tibbo, P., Villeneuve, M., & Jutras-Aswad, D. Preferences of Young Adults With Psychosis for Cannabis-Focused Harm Reduction Interventions: A Cross-Sectional Study: Préférences des jeunes adultes souffrant de psychose pour les interventions de réduction des méfaits axées sur le cannabis : une étude transversale. 0(0), 07067437241242395. https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437241242395

2 Coronado-Montoya, S., Abdel-Baki, A., Côté, J., Crockford, D., Dubreucq, S., Fischer, B., Lachance-Touchette, P., Lecomte, T., L’Heureux, S., Ouellet-Plamondon, C., Roy, M.-A., Tatar, O., Tibbo, P., Villeneuve, M., Wittevrongel, A., & Jutras-Aswad, D. (2023). Evaluation of a cannabis harm reduction intervention for people with first-episode psychosis: Protocol for a pilot multi-centric randomized trial JMIR Research Protocols, 12, e53094. https://doi.org/10.2196/53094