Comparative effectiveness, safety and acceptability of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for the treatment of cannabis use disorders

No medication is currently approved for cannabis use disorder, and this project will compare existing treatments head-to-head to find which works best. Cannabis use disorder—the inability to stop using cannabis despite harm—affects a growing number of people as cannabis becomes more widely available. Psychosocial therapies (counselling, behavioural programmes) are the standard treatment, but they don’t work for everyone. Several drugs are being tested, but none have been licensed, leaving clinicians without clear guidance on what to prescribe. This project fills that gap by re-analysing data from two completed systematic reviews—one on medications, one on psychosocial treatments—using network meta-analysis. This statistical method allows the researchers to compare treatments that have never been directly tested against each other, drawing on indirect evidence from existing trials. If the analysis identifies a particular drug or therapy as clearly more effective, safer, or more acceptable to patients, it could directly inform clinical guidelines. For a condition with no approved pharmacotherapy, even a modestly effective medication would give doctors a new tool. The findings could also help the NHS decide which treatments to prioritise for commissioning, potentially improving outcomes for the estimated hundreds of thousands of people in the UK with cannabis use disorder.