Cannabis Use in Psychiatrie Patients.

Background: Cannabis abuse has been associated with psychiatric disorders.

Methods: The pattern of cannabis use and incidence of cannabis dependence and cannabis psychosis among 471 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary care psychiatric center was investigated.

Results: Cannabis use was reported by 67 (14.23%) patients of whom 42 (8.92%) were occasional users, 18 (3.82%) were classified as frequent users while 7 (1.49%) fulfilled criteria for cannabis dependence. 3 (0.64%) patients showed symptoms which were characteristic of cannabis psychosis. Among the 67 cannabis users, 56 (83.58%) had their first exposure to cannabis before entering service at 13-19 years of age. The remaining 14 (16.09%) began consuming cannabis 1-5 years after joining service.

Conclusion: The reasons given for using cannabis were curiosity about its effects 32 (47.76%), peer pressure 17 (25.37%) or traditional use during festivals 18 (26.87%).