Psychostimulant use in Canada requires enhanced intervention strategies to reduce harm – Nature Mental Health

psychostimulant-use-in-canada-requires-enhanced-intervention-strategies-to-reduce-harm-–-nature-mental-health

Canada is home to a prolonged public health crisis of overdose deaths, which increasingly involves psychostimulant drugs that are neglected in the intervention response. In this Comment, we examine the risks and harms of psychostimulant use, available interventions, and gaps for improved prevention and treatment.

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Funding

The present study did not receive designated support by any specific funder or sponsor.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Benedikt Fischer

  2. Research & Graduate Studies, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

    Benedikt Fischer

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Benedikt Fischer & Bernard Le Foll

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Benedikt Fischer

  5. School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Benedikt Fischer

  6. Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada

    Benedikt Fischer & Bernard Le Foll

  7. Research Centre, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Simon Dubreucq & Didier Jutras-Aswad

  8. Department of Psychiatry & Addictology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Simon Dubreucq & Didier Jutras-Aswad

  9. Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Bernard Le Foll

  10. Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Bernard Le Foll

  11. Translational Addiction Research Laboratory, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Center for Addiction & Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Bernard Le Foll

Authors

  1. Benedikt Fischer
  2. Simon Dubreucq
  3. Bernard Le Foll
  4. Didier Jutras-Aswad

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benedikt Fischer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

B.F. has held research and policy support grants and/or contracts in the areas of substance use, health, crime from public funding and/or government organizations (that is, public-only sources) in the past 3 years, and acknowledges present research and policy support from the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care/Waypoint Research Institute and the University of the Fraser Valley. B.L.F. declares research (for example, research funding and in-kind) support from Indivior, Indiva and Canopy Growth Corporation; research consultancies from and/or science advisory roles with ThirdBridge, Shinogi, Changemark and NFL Biosciences; travel support from Bioprojet; employment-based research support from the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health and the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care; and a clinician-scientist award from the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Chair in Addiction Psychiatry from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Toronto. D.J.-A. acknowledges a clinical-scientist career award from Fonds de Recherche du Québec and financial support from the CHUM Foundation; and has received study materials from Cardiol Therapeutics for clinical trials. S.D. declares no competing interests.

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Peer review information

Nature Mental Health thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Fischer, B., Dubreucq, S., Le Foll, B. et al. Psychostimulant use in Canada requires enhanced intervention strategies to reduce harm. Nat. Mental Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00612-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00612-w

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