CANNABIS AND ACUTE-PSYCHOSIS

The Present State Examination was used to assess the psychopathology o f 23 psychotic patients who were cannabis positive on urinary screenin g, and 46 matched drug-free controls. Cases and controls were indistin guishable in terms of psychopathology, DSMIII diagnoses, onset of rece nt illness, the proportion of first admissions, ethnicity, and socio-e conomic class, differing only in their histories of substance use. The se data suggest that psychosis which develops or recurs in the context of cannabis use does not have a characteristic psychopathology or mod e of onset, and is not restricted to a particular ethnic or socio-demo graphic group. There is thus little evidence to support the validity o f 'cannabis psychosis' as a diagnostic entity.