Abstract
BackgroundIn European countries, including Switzerland, as well as in many states worldwide, cannabis is the most widely used psychoactive substance after alcohol and tobacco. Although approximately one in ten users develop serious problems of dependency, only a minority attends outpatient addiction counseling centers. The offer of a combined web-based self-help and chat counseling treatment could potentially also reach those users who hesitate to approach such treatment centers and help them to reduce their cannabis use.Methods/designThis paper presents the protocol for a three-armed randomized controlled trial that will test the effectiveness of a web-based self-help intervention in combination with, or independent of, tailored chat counseling compared to a waiting list in reducing or enabling the abstention from cannabis use in problematic users. The primary outcome will be the weekly quantity of cannabis used. Secondary outcome measures will include the number of days per week on which cannabis is used, the severity of cannabis use disorder, the severity of cannabis dependence, cannabis withdrawal symptoms, cannabis craving, the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other non-cannabis illicit drugs, changes in mental health symptoms, and treatment retention. The self-help intervention will consist of 8 modules designed to reduce cannabis use based on the principles of motivational interviewing, self-control practices, and methods of cognitive behavioral therapy. The two additional individual chat-counseling sessions in the additional chat condition will be based on the same therapy approaches and tailored to participants’ self-help information data and personal problems. The predictive validity of participants’ baseline characteristics on treatment retention and outcomes will be explored.DiscussionTo the best of our knowledge, this will be the first randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of online self-help therapy in combination or without chat counseling in reducing or enabling the abstention from cannabis use. It will also investigate predictors of outcome and retention for these interventions. This trial is registered at Current Controlled Trials and is traceable as ISRCTN59948178.
Highlights
In European countries, including Switzerland, as well as in many states worldwide, cannabis is the most widely used psychoactive substance after alcohol and tobacco
To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of online self-help therapy in combination or without chat counseling in reducing or enabling the abstention from cannabis use
The current study aims at to investigate and compare the effectiveness of web-based self-help interventions in combination with tailored chat counseling based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), MI, and BSM in reducing cannabis use in problematic cannabis users
Summary
In European countries, including Switzerland, as well as in many states worldwide, cannabis is the most widely used psychoactive substance after alcohol and tobacco. Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the developed world; e.g., a rough European estimate suggests that approximately 22% of Europeans within the ages of 15 and 64 have tried cannabis, and approximately 6.8% of this population report using cannabis in the past month This represents 12 million Europeans, of whom 25% report daily cannabis use [1]. The age group with the highest prevalence is between 15 and 24 years; this group has a 17.3% 12-month prevalence rate, and among these users nearly one fifth use cannabis daily [2]. Despite these high numbers, only a minority of cannabis users is at risk of cannabis dependence. Specific attention should be paid to mental disorders in heavy cannabis users
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