| Purpose: |
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This study will employ two self-report questionnaires to collect information from
non-treatment seeking adults with a marijuana use history who have made at least one attempt
to quit marijuana. The questionnaires will collect information about the socio-demographic
characteristics, history of marijuana use, most difficult marijuana quit experience, and
marijuana craving from study participants. The questionnaire seeks to identify strategies
used to help with marijuana quitting among non-treatment seeking adult marijuana users, and
identify withdrawal symptoms experienced during marijuana quitting and their relationship to
the quitting strategies used and the outcome of the quit attempt. Data will be analyzed for
patterns and correlations among the characteristics of the quit attempt, including any
withdrawal symptoms, quitting strategies used, and its success. The marijuana craving data
will be analyzed to evaluate the validity of this measure of marijuana craving.
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| Study Summary: |
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After giving informed consent, subjects will complete three sets of questions: Marijuana
Quit Questionnaire (Appendix A), Marijuana Craving Questionnaire-12-item version (Appendix
B), and 8 additional questions about marijuana craving (Appendix C). These questionnaires
should take about 1-2 hours to complete. A staff member will be available to assist the
subject as needed, e.g. to answer any questions from the subject and to collect the
completed questionnaires. Subjects will not take the questionnaires if they are unable to
cooperate or give apparently valid answers because of agitation, acute psychosis, or other
psychological states. The subject may request to take a break or stop the session at any
time. If a subject is not will or able to complete the questionnaires in one session, the
staff member will arrange additional sessions until all questionnaires have been completed.
After completion of the questionnaires (or is becomes clear that the subject is unable or
unwilling to complete all questionnaires), the subject will be discharged from the study.
Data will also be collected from up to 200 additional adult subjects participating in two
IRB-approved outpatient marijuana studies conducted by Dr. Aimee McRae at the Medical
University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. These data will be sent to NIDA identified
only by a subject ID number. NIDA investigators have no contact with these subjects, do not
know the code linking ID number with subjects identity, and do not receive any personally
identifiable information. Data from paper questionnaires will be entered into electronic
(computer) format for later analysis. If warranted, a computer-administered version of the
questionnaire may be developed. The Marijuana Quit Questionnaire (Appendix A) collects
information on 3 domains: sociodemographic characteristics, history of marijuana use
(including any associated problems), and characteristics of subjects hardest (self-defined)
quit attempt (including reasons for quitting, coping strategies to help quit, withdrawal
symptoms, and substance use before and during the quit attempt). Questions related to
marijuana-associated problems were adapted from the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification
Test (CUDIT) (Adamson and Sellman 2003) and the diagnostic criteria for cannabis abuse and
dependence in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Questions about reasons for
quitting were drawn from published questionnaires used to study motivation for quitting
among treatment-seeking marijuana users (Helmus, Downey, Wang, Rhodes, and Schuster
2001;McBride, Curry, Stephens, Wells, Roffman, and Hawkins 1994;Stephens, Wertz, and Roffman
1993), supplemented with questions from published questionnaires used to study motivation
for tobacco smoking cessation (Selden, Clark, and Curry 1990). Questions related to coping
strategies were adapted from studies of spontaneous quitters from alcohol and other drugs
(Walters 2000;Sobell, Ellingstad, and Sobell 2000). Questions about marijuana withdrawal
symptoms were drawn from published studies of marijuana withdrawal (Budney, Moore, Vandrey,
and Hughes 2003;Smith 2002). Questions dealing with aggression during marijuana withdrawal
were adapted from the Conflict Tactics Scale, a validated self-report measure of aggressive
behavior (Straus et al., 1996). Questions about substance use before and during quit
attempts were based on the Drug Use Frequency self-report measure (O'Farrell, Fals-Stewart,
and Murphy 2003). The 12-item Marijuana Craving Questionnaire (MCQ-12; Appendix B) was
derived from a larger 47-item Marijuana Craving Questionnaire (MCQ-47). Factor analysis of
the MCQ-47 yielded four factors: compulsivity, emotionality, expectancy, and purposefulness
(Heishman, Singleton, and Liguori 2001). The MCQ-12 was constructed by selecting the three
items from each factor that exhibited optimal within-factor reliability (Cronbach¿s alpha
coefficient) and inter-item correlation. All items are scored on a 1 to 7 scale (Strongly
Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 7). The scores of the three items in each factor are summed
to generate a total factor score (range 3 to 21). Eight additional questions about marijuana
craving (Appendix C) will be used to validate the MCQ-12.
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