Cannabis withdrawal could be triggering psychiatric problems in hospital

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-12 01:00

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In people with psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, mood, personality disorders, cannabis use before being admitted to hospital was more likely to lead them to also needing to be admitted to psychiatric intensive care, say UK researchers, and this was particularly prevalent on days three to five in the hospital, a period associated with the peak severity of cannabis withdrawal syndrome. The researchers scanned through over 52,000 hospital admissions, of which 4691 were admitted to the psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU). The team found cannabis users were more likely to be admitted to a PICU than nonusers. They add that between days three and five of their stay, a transfer to the PICU was more common in cannabis users (31%) than nonusers (24.2%), and this was particularly evident in women and those older than 35 years.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: King’s College London, UK

Funder: This work was supported by the Maudsley Charity (grant 3067). The data resource is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Biomedical Research Unit at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.

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