University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, United States.
Louisiana State University, Department of Psychology, Baton Rouge, LA, United States.
Addict Behav. 2019 May;92:6-13. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.12.008. Epub 2018 Dec 10.
Cannabis is among the most widely used substances worldwide. The United States has seen an increase in the number of adult daily cannabis users and in the number of adults diagnosed with cannabis use disorder. However, little work has examined patterns of use or unique subgroups of adult cannabis users, which may be useful in developing targeted treatment interventions for problematic cannabis users. Therefore, the current study used latent profile analysis to identify whether cannabis users can be categorized across distinct subgroups of adult users.
The sample included 374 current cannabis using adults (64.2% Male; M = 32.6). Cannabis use frequency, quantity, and related problems were used to differentiate subgroups. Further, age, race, emotion dysregulation, affect, anxiety sensitivity, other substance use, and motives for cannabis use were examined as class correlates.
Results supported five unique classes of cannabis users, generally ranging from light, infrequent users with few problems to heavy, frequent users with more problems. Additionally, race, negative affectivity, anxiety sensitivity, emotion regulation, cannabis use motives, and alcohol use emerged as unique predictors of class membership. The current findings substantiate past work for heterogeneous latent classes that underlie the larger cannabis using population, however, this study provides novel evidence for subgroups of adult users.
The identification of different classes of cannabis users may inform future treatment interventions, and ultimately, lead to the development of personalized treatments for each class based on correlates of group membership.
大麻是全球范围内使用最广泛的物质之一。美国的成年每日大麻使用者数量以及被诊断患有大麻使用障碍的成年人数量都有所增加。然而，很少有研究探讨使用模式或成年大麻使用者的独特亚组，这可能有助于为有问题的大麻使用者开发针对性的治疗干预措施。因此，本研究使用潜在剖面分析来确定大麻使用者是否可以分为不同的成年使用者亚组。
该样本包括 374 名当前使用大麻的成年人（64.2%为男性；M=32.6）。使用大麻的频率、数量和相关问题用于区分亚组。此外，年龄、种族、情绪调节障碍、情感、焦虑敏感性、其他物质使用和大麻使用动机被视为类别相关因素进行了检查。
结果支持大麻使用者的五个独特类别，通常从轻度、不频繁使用且问题较少的使用者到重度、频繁使用且问题较多的使用者。此外，种族、负性情感、焦虑敏感性、情绪调节、大麻使用动机和酒精使用情况是类别成员身份的独特预测因素。目前的研究结果证实了过去对大麻使用人群中潜在异质类别进行的研究，但本研究为成年使用者的亚组提供了新的证据。
识别不同类别的大麻使用者可能为未来的治疗干预措施提供信息，并最终根据群体成员身份的相关性为每个类别开发个性化治疗。
