In May 2025, Bristol ESG were asked to undertake a systematic review of the evidence for the comparative effectiveness, safety and acceptability of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for the treatment of cannabis use disorders (CUD). The project is funded by the NIHR Evidence Synthesis Programme (project number: NIHR176717) and involves a secondary network meta-analysis of data from two completed systematic reviews examining the effectiveness and safety of pharmacotherapies (NIHR165373) and psychosocial interventions (NIHR167862) for CUD in adults and young persons aged ≥16 years.
Project status: ongoing
What is the problem?
Cannabis is commonly used worldwide as a recreational drug. Cannabis use disorder is a condition characterized by frequent use, craving and inability to stop using cannabis even when it is causing physical or psychological problems for the user. This condition has become much more common during the past three decades and this has led to an increase in the number of people seeking treatment for it. While specific medicines are not widely available and none are approved for this purpose, psychosocial treatments (such as talking therapies, or giving people incentives like vouchers for staying in treatment) are currently the first choice of treatment.
What are we trying to find out?
We will bring together the available evidence on medicines and psychosocial treatments for cannabis use disorder. We will compare the different types of treatments (or combination of treatments) to identify which are the best approaches for the people with cannabis use disorder. The knowledge generated by this review will help policy makers in the UK.
