Cannabis Abusers Helped By Intensive Therapy
by Australian Associated Press

July 08, 1998 - Sydney Morning Herald - letters@smh.fairfax.com.au

Heavy cannabis users may require intensive psychotherapy in order to stay off the drug, a clinical trial shows.

Australia's first controlled trial on treating marijuana dependence showed that users undergoing a 16-week counselling course had a much better quit rate than those given brief assistance.

The study of 100 long-term cannabis users conducted by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre contrasted intensive individual counselling with a guided self-help program.

Clinical psychologist Dr Brin Grenyer told a Winter School in the Sun addictions conference in Brisbane yesterday that the users who received most intervention had significantly better mental health and stayed off the drug for longer.

Dr Grenyer, from the University of Wollongong, said the study participants smoked an average eight "cones" a day and some consumed up to 50 a day.

The mainly male group, who included executives, managers, administrative workers and skilled and semi-skilled manual workers, had used cannabis daily for at least five years but had no history of alcohol or other drug abuse.

"We are talking about people for whom cannabis was an integral part of their lives - some of them literally did not get out of bed in the morning until they had smoked cannabis," Dr Grenyer said.

Of those who received four months of counselling, 80 per cent quit and of those, 50 per cent remained abstinent a year later.

But among those who received only a one-off therapy session and a quit manual, only 10 to 20 per cent managed to give up completely and many exhibited symptoms of depression.

"The results surprised us because there is some prior evidence that brief interventions can be just as effective as more intensive ones for people with a variety of addictive disorders," he said.

"But we actually found that those who were very dependent on cannabis really needed more intensive help."

Dr Grenyer said the study showed that although giving up cannabis was not as hard as many addicts feared, counselling may be required to help them deal with underlying issues such as depression and anxiety which led them to relapse.

However the self-help approach would be cost-effective for less heavy users who wanted to give up, he said.

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