Harm reduction for perinatal cannabis use: protocol for a scoping review of clinical practices
Authors: Albanese Ariana M. , Littlewood Aden , Creamer Andrew , Rogers Brooke , Elwy A Rani 
Published: December 2024

Introduction

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends against cannabis use during pregnancy and lactation (‘perinatal cannabis use’) given its association with negative parent–child health outcomes. However, cannabis is becoming increasingly available and used during pregnancy, and perceptions of safety are correspondingly increasing. For individuals who are unable or unwilling to cease use during pregnancy and lactation, harm reduction is the best available evidence-based practice to promote health. Further, there have been calls for increased employment of harm reduction for perinatal cannabis use. However, the field currently lacks understanding of what harm reduction for this population looks like in practice. Likely contributing to this lack of understanding is the fact that the concept of harm reduction is not consistently defined, and strategies that comprise harm reduction may not always be labelled as such. This makes it challenging to comprehensively collect articles using search terms meant to pull for harm reduction specifically. The aim of this scoping review is to collect all articles discussing perinatal cannabis use published since the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, and then screen for references that describe concrete clinical practices that comprise harm reduction for this population.

Methods and analysis

The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual for Evidence Synthesis and the Arksey and O’Malley methodology for scoping reviews, as updated by Levac and colleagues, guide this review. The protocol is reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A systematic search of the literature was initially conducted to identify English-language articles authored between January 1990 and 2023 present in these databases as of 22 September 2023: PubMed (National Library of Medicine), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate), APA PsycINFO (EBSCO), CINAHL(EBSCO) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (Wiley). Preceding submission of the results for publication, the search will be run again in order to ensure capturing later publications relevant for this review. Google search results will also be hand-searched for patient-facing materials. Additional grey literature sources include clinical trials, preprints and conference proceedings that were not excluded from the database search results. We will ‘bookend’ our search from 1990 to the present, as the 1990s saw the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, and the first passing of legalised medical cannabis in the USA. Literature will be eligible for inclusion if it includes a description of clinical approaches that comprise harm reduction for perinatal cannabis use. Two reviewers will independently complete title/abstract screening followed by full-text screening of the references that meet title/abstract criteria. Data, including the description of the clinical practice(s), dates of data collection, when and where the reference was published, legal status of cannabis in the place where the data was collected and any reported outcomes associated with the use of the harm reduction practice(s), will be extracted from the studies that remain eligible after full-text review. The studies will also be appraised for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was not sought as this review does not constitute data collection on human subjects (no information or specimens were collected from interaction or intervention with an individual). This scoping review will systematically examine the scope and coverage of existing clinical harm-reduction approaches for perinatal cannabis use in research and clinical practice. Findings will inform practice and elucidate future directions for research. The scoping review study team includes individuals who are themselves actively engaged in treating perinatal patients and they will participate in dissemination activities that allow review findings to reach patients and other providers (eg, presentations, publications).

Study registration

Registered with the Open Science Framework (OSF Registries;https://osf.io/wb3jc).