Mindfulness therapy added to standard inpatient treatment did not outperform standard care for adolescent cannabis use disorder

Both groups showed significant reductions in cannabis use days at 6-month follow-up (effect sizes d = -0.72 and -0.75). While mindfulness therapy showed minor initial benefits for craving and severity, standard treatment alone showed greater reduction in severity (d = 0.78) and reward craving (d = 0.28) at 6 months. Mindfulness therapy did improve self-regulation skills. Systematic dropout was observed in the mindfulness group.

Randomized controlled trial of 84 adolescent inpatients (15-19 years) with cannabis use disorder in Germany. Participants received standard multi-component treatment (TAU) with or without an add-on mindfulness-based group therapy ("Mind it!"). Assessments at pre-, post-, and 6-month follow-up.

Despite high relapse rates in adolescent cannabis treatment, this study found standard inpatient care is already effective, and adding mindfulness therapy did not improve cannabis outcomes despite being feasible and well-received.

The strong performance of standard treatment and the dropout issues with mindfulness therapy suggest that existing evidence-based programs for adolescent cannabis use disorder may already be near-optimal, and that adherence to add-on interventions is a key challenge.

Small sample size (84); systematic dropout in mindfulness group; single-site German inpatient setting; 6-month follow-up may be too short; cannot determine which TAU components drove the effect; cultural context may not generalize