Aberrant salience in cannabis-induced psychosis: a comparative study
Frontiers in Psychiatry January 8, 2024 V. Ricci, Ilenia di Muzio, F. Ceci et al.
Patients with first-episode psychosis who use synthetic cannabinoids (SPICE) experience more severe and persistent positive symptoms and less improvement in aberrant salience—the tendency to assign excessive meaning to neutral stimuli—compared with natural cannabis users and non-users. Non-users show better recovery in global functioning. Aberrant salience scores decline over six months in all groups, but SPICE-users start higher and improve less. Negative symptoms are most prominent among non-users. These findings may help clinicians tailor diagnosis and treatment for substance-induced versus non-substance-related psychosis.