CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 552Cannabis and Cannabinoid ResearchSubstance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesSmoking Behavior and Cessation

Cannabis use and cannabis use disorder

Open access
Connor, Jason P., Stjepanović, Daniel, Le Foll, Bernard, Hoch, Eva, Budney, Alan J., Hall, Wayne D.·2021·Nature Reviews Disease Primers
DOI 10.1038/s41572-021-00247-4PMC PMC8655458
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is an underappreciated risk of using cannabis that affects ~10% of the 193 million cannabis users worldwide. The individual and public health burdens are less than those of other forms of drug use, but CUD accounts for a substantial proportion of persons seeking treatment for drug use disorders owing to the high global prevalence of cannabis use. Cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational enhancement therapy and contingency management can substantially reduce cannabis use and cannabis-related problems, but enduring abstinence is not a common outcome. No pharmacotherapies have been approved for cannabis use or CUD, although a number of drug classes (such as cannabinoid agonists) have shown promise and require more rigorous evaluation. Treatment of cannabis use and CUD is often complicated by comorbid mental health and other substance use disorders. The legalization of non-medical cannabis use in some high-income countries may increase the prevalence of CUD by making more potent cannabis products more readily available at a lower price. States that legalize medical and non-medical cannabis use should inform users about the risks of CUD and provide information on how to obtain assistance if they develop cannabis-related mental and/or physical health problems.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41572-021-00247-4

Cites

341 of 341 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Individuals with PTSD+SUD have greater functional impairment and greater cannabis use than those without SUD.

    “Concerns are especially pronounced for individuals with both PTSD and substance use disorders (PTSD+SUD) due to greater functional impairment (Kessler et al., 2005; Simpson et al., 2019) and cannabis use (Connor et al., 2021) associated with PTSD+SUD.”

    From Cannabis use and trauma-focused treatment for co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis of individual patient data (2024) · cites this paper as Connor et al., 2021

    The Epidemiology sections on co-occurring mental health disorders and cannabis and other substance use (page unavailable) report that PTSD and cannabis use disorder co-occur, and that cannabis use disorder frequently co-occurs with other substance use disorders. They do not compare cannabis use in people with PTSD+SUD against people with PTSD without SUD. The functional-impairment claim is attributed to the other citations, not Connor et al. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Respondents aged 18-34 or non-Hispanic multiracial may be at heightened risk for using other substances and/or developing psychiatric comorbidity.

    “These respondents may be at heightened risk for using other substances and/or developing psychiatric comorbidity (Connor et al., 2021, Hasin, 2018, Hasin and Walsh, 2020, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017, Rabiee et al., 2020).”

    From Prevalence of and trends in current cannabis use among US youth and adults, 2013–2022 (2024) · cites this paper as Connor et al., 2021

    The Epidemiology sections on cannabis and other substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders (page not available) report elevated rates of other substance use disorders and psychiatric disorders among people with cannabis use disorder. They do not identify respondents aged 18–34 or non-Hispanic multiracial respondents as particularly at risk; the age-of-onset section instead discusses risks associated with starting cannabis use before age 16 or 18. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 17

  1. [10]Hall W, Renström M & Poznyak V The Health and Social Effects of Nonmedical Cannabis Use (World Health Organization, 2016). This is a seminal review of the short-term and long-term effects of cannabis use and CUD on health.
  2. [23]National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, & Committee on the Health Effects of Marijuana: An Evidence Review and Research Agenda. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research (National Academies Press, 2017). 28182367
  3. [27]Compton WM & Han B in The Complex Connection between Cannabis and Schizophrenia (eds Compton M & Manseau M) (Academic Press, 2017).
  4. [37]Kelly AB, Weier M & Hall WD in Age of Onset of Mental Disorders (eds de Girolamo G, McGorry PD & Sartorius N) 149– 167 (Springer, 2019).
  5. [55]Connor JP, Feeney GFX, Kelly AB & Saunders JB in The SAGE Handbook of Drug & Alcohol Studies. Volume 2, 283– 305 (SAGE Publications, 2016).
  6. [73]Howlett AC in Cannabinoids. Handbook of Experimental Psychology, vol 168 (ed. Pertwee RG) 53– 79. (Springer, 2005).
  7. [80]Trick L in PET and SPECT in Psychiatry 2nd edn (eds Dierckx RAJO, Otte A, de Vries EFJ, van Waarde A & Sommer IE) 653– 712 (Springer, 2020).
  8. [124]Lee S-Y, Chang Y-H & Lu R-B in Alcohol Dependence in Neuropathology of Drug Addictions and Substance Misuse Volume 1 (ed. Preedy VR) 543– 551 (Elsevier, 2016).
  9. [133]McMurran M The Psychology of Addiction (Routledge, 1994).
  10. [145]Hoch E & Rohrbacher H in Handbook of Cannabis and Related Pathologies (ed. Preedy VR) e193– e201 (Elsevier, 2017).
  11. [171]Wittchen H-U, Lieber R & Perkonig A in Basic and Clinical Science of Substance Related Disorders (ed. Ladewig D) 7– 22 (Karger, 1999). [ Bibliotecha Psychiatrica vol. 168].
  12. [181]Sobell LC & Sobell MB in Measuring Alcohol Consumption (eds Litten RZ & Allen JP) 41– 72 (Humana Press, 1992).
  13. [226]Connor JP, Saunders JB & Feeney GFX in Quality of Life in Mental Disorders (eds Katschnig H, Freeman HL & Sartorius N) 199– 208 (John Wiley & Sons, 2006).
  14. [255]Longabaugh R, Magill M, Morgenstern J & Huebner R in Addictions: A Comprehensive Guidebook (eds McCrady BS & Epstein EE) 572– 596 (Oxford University Press, 2013).
  15. [268]Blecha L, Lafaye G & Benyamina A in Cannabis Use Disorders (eds Montoya ID & Weiss SRB) 13– 20 (Springer, 2019).
  16. [272]Marlatt GA, & Donovan DM (eds) Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors (Guilford Press, 1985).
  17. [294]Saunders JB (eds) Addiction Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Connor, J. P., Stjepanović, D., Le Foll, B., Hoch, E., Budney, A. J., & Hall, W. D.
Affiliations
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • LMU Klinikum (DE)
  • Dartmouth College (US)
Corresponding author
Connor, Jason P.
ORCID
Venue
Nature Reviews Disease Primers
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-02-25
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
16-16
ISSN
2056-676X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41572-021-00247-4
PMC
PMC8655458
OpenAlex
W3131397527
Cited by
552
References
341
Citations by year
2026: 106 · 2025: 135 · 2024: 119 · 2023: 122 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 21
FWCI
9.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Reviews Disease Primers (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA050032, T32DA037202, P30DA029926)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
Keywords
cannabis use disorder, cannabis use, cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, contingency management, abstinence, cannabinoid receptor agonists, pharmacotherapy, psychiatric comorbidity, substance use disorders, cannabis legalization, medical cannabis, non-medical cannabis, public health burden
MeSH terms
Analgesics, Cannabis, Marijuana Abuse, Humans, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Prevalence

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review