Program evaluation to aid choice of Aripiprazole or Risperidone for hospitalized adolescents with cannabis use disorder and psychosis

Co-occurring cannabis use and psychosis is an increasing problem. No single behavioral or pharmacologic treatment has emerged as clearly superior. To address the gap, this nonrandomized, quality improvement project compares outcomes for adolescents with co-occurring cannabis use disorder and psychosis prescribed Risperidone or Aripiprazole. It was published in October 2023 in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. The authors are Dr. Christian Thurstone ^1 2, Ryan Loh ^1 2, Kristina Foreman ¹, Christian A Thurstone ¹, Chelsea Wolf ^1 2

Materials and Methods: This project is a retrospective chart review of 110 adolescents (ages 13-21 years) hospitalized for psychosis and co-occurring cannabis use disorder. The primary outcomes are length of stay and length of stay index.

Results: Adolescents prescribed risperidone compared with aripiprazole had a significantly greater length of stay (9.7 days vs. 5.8 days, p = 0.002) and length of stay index (1.4 vs. 0.79, p = 0.004).

Conclusions: Adolescents hospitalized for co-occurring psychosis and cannabis use disorder had a significantly longer length of stay and length of stay index. These data are consistent with a more rapid reduction in acute psychotic symptoms for aripiprazole compared with risperidone in the context of co-occurring cannabis use disorder.

We invite you to read the full research report here.

See what Dr. Thurstone has published previously here at Dr. Thurstone.com about THC-induced psychosis.

(Featured photo by Glenn Carstens-Peterson via Unsplash)