Active clinical trials for "Marijuana Abuse"

The purpose of this study is to develop a modular treatment program for cannabis use disorders and the evaluation of the effectiveness in a controlled clinical study.

INCA (Intervention and Neuropsychology of Cannabis Abuse) is a study combining two research goals. One is to study efficacy of a short intervention the 'Problem Profile Intervention', which utilizes individual feedback from a 'substance problem check-up'. Subjects will randomly receive the 'Problem Profile Intervention' or the WHO Brief Intervention, a brief intervention, which has been shown to be efficacious. Currently efficiency studies are under way. The WHO Brief Intervention has been translated into German by our group. In contrast to most other cannabis intervention studies the current study is focussed on cannabis abusers not so much cannabis-dependent subjects. A total of 160 subjects are to be recruited. Half of them will randomly receive either the Problem Profile Intervention or the WHO Brief Intervention (active control). A total of 25% of subjects from each group will be placed on a 3 months waiting list before receiving the intervention (inactive control). Intervention outcome will be assessed three months, six month and 12 months after the intervention. We hypothesize cannabis use to be reduced by 25% by the 'Problem Profile Intervention'. The second aim of the study is to study mechanism of substance abuse. Initial results from own studies and data from other groups point to executive cognitive functions as a subtle but important factor that can be compromised in cannabis users (Verdejo-Garcia et al., 2004; Garavan and Stout, 2005). Using an fMRI-study, we intend to examine a subgroup of our subjects on a specific aspect of executive functioning that has recently received major interest in drug research: Decision-making capability, or risk-taking behaviour, respectively (e.g. Ernst and Paulus, 2005).

This study evaluates the effects of psychological and pharmacological treatment of regular users of cannabis and psychostimulants in a treatment center (Kfar Izun) in Israel. The participants will undergo psychological evaluation before and during treatment and follow up at 4 months. Ten participants will undergo brain imaging of the dopamine receptor D2 in order to evaluate the effects of treatment on dopamine turnover in the brain. A control group of psychiatric in-patients undergoing treatment for psychiatric illness with be recruited from Geha Hospital in Israel. It is predicted that successful treatment of regular users of cannabis will be resulted in improvement in anxiety, depression and psychotic symptoms as well as in upregulation of dopamine turnover in participants that will undergo brain imaging.

The goal of this project is to test the effectiveness of a computer-facilitated alcohol screening and brief intervention (c-ASBI) system for 12- to 18-year-old primary care patients in a multi-site, randomized comparative effectiveness trial. The investigators hypothesize that, among 12- to 18-year olds patients coming for annual well-care, those receiving c-ASBI will have lower rates of any alcohol use at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups compared to Treatment As Usual (TAU).

Cannabis use among Spanish adolescents has been increasing in the last decade. It has been related to poor school achievement, delinquency, substance use and psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, psychoactive substance use in adolescents presenting psychiatric disorders can result in the development of substance use disorders or the worsening of psychopathology. Thus, there's an urge to develop efficient interventions in the treatment of these disorders. Therapeutic approaches based on cognitive-behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing have demonstrated a limited efficacy in this population. Programs based on contingency management have been reported to be useful both in adult and adolescents, too. But it still remains unclear whether a combination of these therapeutic approaches is feasible and brings a better cost-benefit relation. The investigators' project aims to evaluate the added benefits of supplementing a standard intervention on cannabis use, based on combined approach that includes motivational and cognitive-behavioural elements, with a contingency management program. Therefore, pre and post-treatment evaluation will be carried forward in a sample of 30 adolescents (aged 12-18) that initiate treatment for cannabis use related disorder at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona. Participants will be randomly assigned to a standard treatment group or an experimental group in which standard treatment will be supplemented with a contingency management protocol. As a secondary objective, a prospective assessment of neuropsychological performance related to cannabis use or abstinence will be carried forward.

Clinical evidence about the effects of cannabis in the management of acute pain is rather scarce, mostly consisting of case report-based opinions on adverse events during or after general anesthesia after smoking cannabis, experimental pain trials in healthy volunteers, and a few clinical trials using different drugs, dosages and routes of administration. It is difficult to draw strong conclusions from the available evidence, that may seem sometimes even contradictory, mainly due -the investigators believe- to the many sources of variability in the study designs (e.g.: heterogeneity of the study samples, underpowered, unblinding, lack of randomization, timing of the therapeutic intervention, different experimental pain models, inclusion of different kind of surgical pain, etc.). Nevertheless, expert's opinion after a critical review of the literature is that cannabis and cannabinoids may have a beneficial role in the management of acute pain, at least for a selected group of patients and through an appropriate therapeutic intervention. Cannabis oil seem to be most suitable to our investigation. The co-administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) with cannabidiol (CBD) may translate into additional therapeutic benefits with an attenuation of adverse effects. And will help treat acute radicular back pain

This study will use a randomized controlled design to test whether patients who use medical marijuana, compared to a waitlist control group, experience a change in health outcomes (relief of symptoms, or adverse health outcomes such as new-onset symptoms of cannabis use disorders, neurocognitive impairments) or brain-based changes.

The purpose of this study is to find out more about cognitive functioning in people who are cannabis dependent, relative to people who do not use cannabis, and how their brains process information after one month of not using cannabis. An additional goal is to characterize the severity of cannabis dependence using precipitated and naturalistic withdrawal with a double blind, placebo controlled, single administration of rimonabant. Research assessments occur bi-weekly throughout this 28 day study.

This study tests the feasibility of an intervention to prevent risky alcohol or marijuana use that adds a 4-week course of tailored text messaging to a brief motivational intervention for 13-18-year-old adolescents.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and cortical excitability have a role in cannabis use disorder