A research team led by Alexander Denissoff, of the University of Turku in Finland found that antipsychotics, a class of medication to treat symptoms of psychotic disorders, might be helpful for people who overuse marijuana.
The research noted that people who overuse marijuana often experience psychotic episodes such as hallucinations and delusions, which sometimes get so out of control that people end up being hospitalized for a long time.
The findings, published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, suggested that antipsychotics might help such people to connect back to reality after experiencing first psychotic episode.
The study observed 1,820 people who had a first psychotic episode along with cannabis use disorder between 2006 and 2021, out of which over 1,100 patients got hospitalized after experiencing psychotic relapse, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
However, it was noted that patients who received antipsychotic medications were less likely to require hospitalization due to relapse, compared to patients who had not received the medications.
The researchers found that antipsychotic medications such as risperidone reduced the chances of hospitalization by 60 percent, followed by aripiprazole, oral clozapine and paliperidone.
For people hospitalized due to any substance use disorder, clozapine proved to be the most effective, with 86 percent reduced risk of re-hospitalization, followed by risperidone and paliperidone.
“These findings encourage the early use of second-generation, long-acting injectables as an important secondary prevention strategy to reduce rates of hospitalization,” said Denissoff.
However, the researchers emphasized that a person who overuses marijuana can suffer from multiple psychotic episodes, if they do not take antipsychotic medications as prescribed.
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