ArticleThe American journal of psychiatry2024
Association of Cannabis Use Reduction With Improved Functional Outcomes: An Exploratory Aggregated Analysis From Seven Cannabis Use Disorder Treatment Trials to Extract Data-Driven Cannabis Reduction Metrics.
Article in The American journal of psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evidence-based consensus guidelines for the pharmacological management of substance dependence: Recommendations from the British Association for Psychopharmacology.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Guideline
- Pharmacotherapies for cannabis use disorder.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Correlates of Engagement and Associations With Outcomes in a Cannabis Harm-Reduction Mobile App for Youth With First-Episode Psychosis: Exploratory Analysis of the CHAMPS Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR formative research · 2026Trial
- Cannabis craving and cross-substance substitution during cannabis treatment: Initial insights across seven cannabis use disorder clinical trials.Addictive behaviors · 2026Article
- Beyond abstinence: Redefining success in cannabis use disorder treatment.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Pharmacotherapy for Cannabis Use Disorder: Preclinical and Clinical Models.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
- World Health Organization risk drinking level reductions as treatment outcomes in PTSD and substance use disorder trials.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Proceedings of the 2025 Cannabis Clinical Outcomes Research Conference.Medical cannabis and cannabinoidsArticle
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis exploratory analysis sought to determine whether decreases in cannabis use are associated with improvements in cannabis-related problems and functional outcomes, and if so, what percentage decrease is associated with improvement.
methodsData were aggregated from seven cannabis use disorder treatment trials conducted in the United States (N=920; ages 13 years and older; mean age, 25 years; 30% female, 7% Black, 11% Hispanic/Latinx). Outcome measures included the patient-reported Marijuana Problems Scale (MPS), Health-Related Quality of Life scale (HRQOL), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the clinician-rated Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) severity and improvement scales (CGI-S and CGI-I). Generalized estimating equations tested the association between changes in 4-week cannabis use and improvements in functional outcomes. Classification and regression tree (CART) models were developed to determine what reductions in cannabis use could be used as classifiers of improvement.
resultsDecreases in the amount and frequency of cannabis use were significantly associated with improvements in MPS severity and total scores as well as improvements on the CGI-I and in sleep quality, but not improvements on the HRQOL. CART models performed best for CGI-I scores (72%-75% correct classification), while other outcome measures did not perform as well (40%-62% correct classification). CART models showed improvements on the CGI at 74% reduction in use amounts and 47% reduction in use days.
conclusionsReductions in cannabis use (∼50% reduction in use days and ∼75% reduction in use amounts) were associated with clinician-assessed improvement, which suggests that cannabis use reduction may yield benefit among individuals with cannabis use disorder. These exploratory results extract a data-driven metric to inform future studies, clinicians, patients, and policy recommendations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.