Open AccessPsychotic disorders hospitalizations associated with cannabis abuse or dependence: A nationwide big data analysis
Author(s) -
GonçalvesPinho Manuel,
Bragança Miguel,
Freitas Alberto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of methods in psychiatric research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1557-0657
pISSN - 1049-8931
DOI - 10.1002/mpr.1813
Subject(s) - cannabis , medicine , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , observational study , psychiatry , pediatrics , public health , population , retrospective cohort study , environmental health , nursing
Abstract Objectives We aimed to describe and correlate the hospital panorama of psychotic disorders (PD) with cannabis use (CU) trends in all Portuguese public hospitals. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study that analysed all hospitalizations that occurred in Portuguese public hospitals from 2000 to 2015. Hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of PD or schizophrenia were selected based on Clinical Classification Software diagnostic single‐level 659. Episodes associated with CU were identified by the International Classification of Diseases Version 9, Clinical Modification code 304.3/305.2 that correspond to cannabis dependence/cannabis abuse. Results The number of hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of PD and schizophrenia associated with CU rose 29.4 times during the study period, from 20 to 588 hospitalizations yearly (2000 and 2015, respectively) with a total of 3,233 hospitalizations and an average episode cost of €3,500. Male patients represented 89.8% of all episodes, and the mean/median age at discharge were 30.66/29.00 years, respectively. From all hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of PD or schizophrenia, the ones with a secondary diagnosis of CU rose from 0.87% in 2000 to 10.60% in 2015. Conclusions The increase on secondary diagnosis coding and the change on cannabis patterns of consumption in Portuguese population with an increasing frequency of moderate/high dosage cannabis consumers may explain the rise on PD hospitalizations.