Nursing care plan for patients with toxic psychosis due to cannabis use in hospital admission. A case report

Abstract

Cannabis use, the most consumed illegal drug in Spain, is behind the increasingly early appearance of young people with psychotic episodes in hospital emergency departments who require admission to acute units, with a complex therapeutic approach due to the loss of social support. We present the care plan on admission of a 21-year-old man with a psychotic episode due to cannabis use, with no psychiatric history or follow-up, who is admitted after a home episode of delusional ideation, agitation and hetero-aggression that required police intervention. Combining Virginia Henderson’s needs model and Marjory Gordon’s functional health patterns, NANDA diagnoses were formulated with NOC outcomes and NIC interventions (ineffective health maintenance, insomnia, ineffective coping and risk of other-directed violence). After the first few days with verbal, mechanical and pharmacological containment, the patient achieved a progressive recovery with the disappearance of delusional ideation, greater impulse control, reality-focused speech and recovery of sleep, planning discharge with continuity of care and family involvement.