Short communication Psychological distress and marijuana use before and after treatment: Testing cognitive–behavioral matching hypotheses Josephine M. DeMarce a, * , Robert S. Stephens a , Roger A. Roffman b a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States b University of Washington, United States Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological distress, self- efficacy, and marijuana use using data from a randomized controlled trial of treatments for marijuana dependence [J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 68 (2000) 898–908]. Adult marijuana users seeking treatment (N=291) were randomly assigned to three treatment conditions: (1) cognitive–behavioral relapse prevention support group (RPSG), (2) individualized assessment and advice group (IAI), and (3) delayed treatment control group (DTC). As predicted, psychologically distressed individuals had lower self-efficacy for avoiding marijuana use in psychologically distressing (PD) situations as opposed to nonpsychologically distressing (NPD) situations. However, all participants tended to have lower self- efficacy for NPD situations than PD situations. Efficacy increased and marijuana use decreased following treatment but the RPSG treatment did not have greater benefit for psychologically distressed participants. D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Marijuana is one of the most frequently used illicit drugs in the United States (Hall, Johnston, & Donnelly, 1999). Copeland, Swift, and Rees (2001) found a great deal of 0306-4603/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.09.009 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 540 2317631; fax: +1 540 2313652. E-mail address: jdemarce@vt.edu (J.M. DeMarce). Addictive Behaviors 30 (2005) 1055 – 1059