A scoping review of the mental health of university students who use cannabis in South Africa.

Abstract

Cannabis use amongst university students continues to rise and remains a public health concern. It is of paramount importance to find out the impact of cannabis use on students’ mental health. Cannabis use and other substances amongst students is often linked to adverse psychological, health and academic outcomes. The study aimed to conduct a scoping review of the mental health of university students who use cannabis in South Africa. The study used the five steps outlined by Arksey and O’Malley as a methodological framework. A search was conducted on Google scholar, EBSCOhost, PubMed, as well as grey literature on websites such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and government websites to identify scoping review studies. Due to meeting the inclusion criteria, 54 studies were included in the final review. This included mental health of university students who use cannabis. The results showed that cannabis use is linked to several mental health problems and may contribute to cognitive decline. Students were found to hold positive views about cannabis and did not view it as a serious health risk. There are several factors that contribute to the use of cannabis, including peer-influence and parental attitudes, stress, psychosocial stressors, and social milieu. Cannabis use can be reduced using student focused programs, motivational interviewing and drug education. In conclusion, there is a need to educate students through evidenced based research regarding the negative mental health effects of using cannabis.