Brief Interventions for Cannabis Use Disorders: A Review

Background: Cannabis use and abuse is an important health hazard which has several harmful consequences on person’s physical and psychological well-being. Although cannabis use disorder is a common problem across various countries, the effective medications for treatment are still limited. Because of this, the major focus of interventions for cannabis use disorder has been on psychological modalities. One such intervention is a brief intervention, which targets mainly those persons with less severe cannabis use problems. The current narrative review aims at providing an overview of the role and relevance of brief intervention in cannabis use disorders and discusses the relevant methodological issues. Subjects and Methods: We reviewed multiple scientific search engines including Google Scholar, PubMed, and PubMed Central. Search terms used includes but are not limited to, “brief intervention,” “cannabis use disorders treatment,” “cannabis abuse treatment,” “brief interventions for cannabis,” etc. Studies assessing efficacy/effectiveness of brief intervention in cannabis use disorders were included in this review. Results: The majority of studies points toward the effectiveness of brief intervention in reducing the cannabis use and/or associated consequences in cannabis use disorders. However, the studies should be interpreted cautiously given the variation in the type, theoretical construct, duration, and outcome measures for brief intervention and the therapist attributes. Conclusions: Brief interventions might be useful for mild to moderate cannabis users for reducing cannabis use and/or associated consequences. Future studies, especially in developing countries are required to look for applicability of such interventions in different populations.