Cannabis and psychotic-like experiences in <18-year-old patients receiving mental health care

Cannabis use is common amongst teenagers and more so amongst teenagers with mental health problems. However, we know that adolescent cannabis use can increase the risks of mental health problems, including later psychotic disorders. We lack data about this in adolescents receiving mental health care. Using South London electronic health records, we will improve the quantification of problematic cannabis use and unusual experiences (e.g. hallucinations) in adolescents, then describe the characteristics of adolescents who do use cannabis problematically (e.g. their gender, age, ethnicity). Then, we will calculate how many of problematic cannabis users there are in youth mental health services and understand the amount of unusual experiences. Finally we will investigate the relationships between the problem cannabis use and the unusual experiences.