TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychopathological symptoms associated with synthetic cannabinoid use
T2 - a comparison with natural cannabis
AU - Mensen, Vincent T
AU - Vreeker, Annabel
AU - Nordgren, Johan
AU - Atkinson, Amanda
AU - de la Torre, Rafael
AU - Farré, Magi
AU - Ramaekers, Johannes G
AU - Brunt, Tibor M
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the European Commission (Drugs Policy Initiatives, Justice Programme 2014–2020, contract no. HOME/2014/JDRU/AG/DRUG/7082, Predicting Risk of Emerging Drugs With In Silico and Clinical Toxicology, PREDICT project). M. Farré was granted by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII-FIS-FEDER, PI14/00715).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - BACKGROUND: Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are a class of new psychoactive substances that have been rapidly evolving around the world throughout recent years. Many different synthetic cannabinoid analogues are on the consumer market and sold under misleading names, like "spice" or "incense." A limited number of studies have reported serious health effects associated with SC use. In this study, we compared clinical and subclinical psychopathological symptoms associated with SC use and natural cannabis (NC) use.METHODS: A convenience sample of 367 NC and SC users was recruited online, including four validated psychometric questionnaires: The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Altman Mania Scale (Altman), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). The two groups were compared with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA), chi2 tests, and logistic regression when appropriate.RESULTS: The SC user group did not differ in age from the NC user group (27.7 years), but contained less females (21% and 30%, respectively). SC users scored higher than NC users on all used psychometric measures, indicating a higher likelihood of drug abuse, sleep problems, (hypo)manic symptoms, and the nine dimensions comprising the BSI, somatization, obsessive-compulsive behavior, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Odds ratios (95% CI) for the SC user group vs NC user group were, respectively, drug dependence 3.56 (1.77-7.16), (severe) insomnia 5.01 (2.10-11.92), (hypo-)mania 5.18 (2.04-13.14), and BSI psychopathology 5.21 (2.96-9.17).DISCUSSION: This study shows that SC use is associated with increased mental health symptomatology compared to NC use.
AB - BACKGROUND: Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are a class of new psychoactive substances that have been rapidly evolving around the world throughout recent years. Many different synthetic cannabinoid analogues are on the consumer market and sold under misleading names, like "spice" or "incense." A limited number of studies have reported serious health effects associated with SC use. In this study, we compared clinical and subclinical psychopathological symptoms associated with SC use and natural cannabis (NC) use.METHODS: A convenience sample of 367 NC and SC users was recruited online, including four validated psychometric questionnaires: The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Altman Mania Scale (Altman), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). The two groups were compared with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA), chi2 tests, and logistic regression when appropriate.RESULTS: The SC user group did not differ in age from the NC user group (27.7 years), but contained less females (21% and 30%, respectively). SC users scored higher than NC users on all used psychometric measures, indicating a higher likelihood of drug abuse, sleep problems, (hypo)manic symptoms, and the nine dimensions comprising the BSI, somatization, obsessive-compulsive behavior, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Odds ratios (95% CI) for the SC user group vs NC user group were, respectively, drug dependence 3.56 (1.77-7.16), (severe) insomnia 5.01 (2.10-11.92), (hypo-)mania 5.18 (2.04-13.14), and BSI psychopathology 5.21 (2.96-9.17).DISCUSSION: This study shows that SC use is associated with increased mental health symptomatology compared to NC use.
KW - Altman
KW - BSI
KW - Cannabis
KW - DOPAMINE RELEASE
KW - DRUG
KW - DUDIT
KW - HIGH-POTENCY CANNABIS
KW - IDENTIFICATION TEST DUDIT
KW - ISI
KW - MANIA
KW - MARIJUANA
KW - Mental health
KW - PHARMACOLOGY
KW - PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES
KW - Psychiatry
KW - Psychology
KW - Questionnaire
KW - RISK
KW - Spice
KW - Synthetic cannabis
KW - USE DISORDERS
U2 - 10.1007/s00213-019-05238-8
DO - 10.1007/s00213-019-05238-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 30968175
SN - 0033-3158
VL - 236
SP - 2677
EP - 2685
JO - Psychopharmacology
JF - Psychopharmacology
IS - 9
ER -