Cannabis-induced psychosis is not uncommon and a lot of antipsychotics have been in use in clinical practice to address the problem. However, Blonanserin, a relatively new atypical antipsychotic has not yet been tested in cases like this.

This study aims to understand any possible role of Blonanserin in patients of cannabis -induced psychosis.

We recruited 20 patients as per DSM V criteria, coded 292.5,of cannabis-induced psychosis into the study and randomly divided them into 10 each of 2 groups, Group A and Group B and administered Blonanserin (4-24mg)and Placebo respectively for the two groups and then followed up for 6 months. All patients were assessed for their psychotic symptoms before and after the study, using Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and statistically analysed.

Gr A patients, overall, showed better response (at least 50%reduction in BPRS score from the baseline in all patients)in comparison to the Gr B patients in terms of their psychotic symptoms as we could analyse from the t score measurement difference between the two groups before and after the study. Significantly, Blonanserin was very well tolerated.

While several antipsychotic drugs have already been proven beneficial in the treatment of cannabis-induced psychosis, almost all of them have troublesome side effects and even some of them, like Risperidone has actually been found to increase craving for cannabis in some patients, as available literature suggests. However, Blonanserin, because of its overall favourable pharmacological profile might be a very useful drug in such cases.