The article reports a comprehensive review finding that cannabis-based medicines provide little to no benefit for most mental health and substance use disorders, with some small potential benefits in limited areas and generally modest safety concerns. The findings synthesize 54 randomized trials involving nearly 2,500 participants and emphasize the gap between increasing medical use and solid scientific support. The overall message is cautious about the routine use of cannabis medicines for psychiatric conditions.

This topic is of interest to psychology enthusiasts because it highlights how evidence-based practice intersects with evolving treatment trends, and it demonstrates the complexities of evaluating complex interventions across diverse mental health conditions.

Article Title: A massive review reveals cannabis falls short in treating psychiatric disorders

Link to PsyPost Article: https://www.psypost dot org/a-massive-review-reveals-cannabis-falls-short-in-treating-psychiatric-disorders/

Copy and paste broken link above into your browser and replace "dot" with "." for link to work. We have to do it this way to avoid displaying copyrighted images.

#CannabisResearch #MentalHealth #SystematicReview #Cannabinoids #Psychiatry

Can #AI handle abstract screening for a #systematicReview?

Li et al. tested #ChatGPT, #PaLM, #Llama, #Claude, and various techniques on 3 datasets.

#GPT4 was consistently at least 90% accurate (vs gold standard) with balanced sensitivity & specificity.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-024-02609-x

From June 2025:

I don't trust large language model (#LLM) AIs: They're trained to sound plausible without regard for accuracy, ie, generate bullshit.

If you can handle that "spicy" description, please read this essay by @researchfairy, describing how LLMs can be used to deliberately weaponize #SystematicReview articles. Want a topic review that will completely plausibly support your controversial viewpoint? Say, you want to support raw milk or decry #vaccination ?

https://blog.bgcarlisle.com/2025/05/16/a-plausible-scalable-and-slightly-wrong-black-box-why-large-language-models-are-a-fascist-technology-that-cannot-be-redeemed/

"Artificial Intelligence Tools in Biomedical Research: Part 1—Literature Search and Knowledge Mining"

Platforms such as Elicit, BioGPT, and PubTator 3.0 enable rapid extraction of gene-disease associations and evidence-based insights, while ResearchRabbit and Connected Papers visualize citation networks. Systematic review tools like Rayyan and Covidence reduce screening time by up to 50%.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/15230864251405885

#research #medicine #AItools #systematicReview

#statstab #473 Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) in systematic reviews

Thoughts: An interesting proposition for when you don't have good data for a meta-analysis.

#synthesis #metaanalysis #systematicreview

https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.l6890

Thrilled to announce that @shreyadimri and I will be part of #LoveMethods26! 🎉

We'll be running a session on "How to avoid common problems when doing a #systematicReview and #MetaAnalysis", sharing practical tips for conducting reproducible & transparent evidence syntheses

Love Methods Week (January 19–23, 2026) is a FREE online event where researchers come together to learn & share open, reusable methods. There's something for everyone!

👉 Full details & registration: https://excelscior.uc.pt/love-methods-week-2026/

Congratulations to Sophie Hascher for the publication of her study titled "Systematic Literature Review on Psychological Treatment Methods for Substance use Disorder and Food Addiction" that has been published online today: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-025-01553-8

#substanceusedisorders #suds #foodaddiction #systematicreview