Study Supports CBD for Treatment-Resistant Anxiety

In a recently published clinical trial, researchers from Melbourne, Australia looked into how effectively CBD administration can relieve severe anxiety in young adults.

The study's investigators assessed the affects of daily CBD administration on a participant group of 31 people aged 12-25 years old who have severe refractory anxiety. Before the administration of the CBD began, participants' anxiety symptoms were measured using the "Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale" (OASIS). Then, the participants self-titrated daily doses of CBD - from 400mg to 800mg - over a 12-week period.

The study's results showed that "CBD dosing was associated with a statistically significant reduction in anxiety severity," and that the CBD dosing also "demonstrated an acceptable safety profile, with no serious adverse events reported and no clinically significant deviations to blood cell counts."

The investigators report that just under half of all participants saw a 50% reduction in OASIS scores, and the remaining participants saw a reduction of around 33%. At the end of the study, those participants that were marked as "severely ill" had decreased from 17 (56.7% of all participants) to 5 (about 17% of all participants).

The researchers also noted that "CBD’s greatest efficacy was observed during the final four weeks of treatment, indicating that a longer treatment regimen may potentially lead 'to even greater improvements."

The study's conclusion states: "Given that the patients included in our trial were some of the most severe and treatment resistant, and had significant functional impairment and multiple failed treatment attempts, the reduction in anxiety severity observed here suggests that CBD has clinically meaningful anxiolytic effects…The findings of this trial suggest that further investigation of CBD for anxiety in conjunction with usual care is warranted.”

Sources:

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35921510/

2. https://norml.org/news/2022/08/11/clinical-trial-cbd-safe-and-effective-for-young-people-with-treatment-resistant-anxiety-disorders/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_spotlight&utm_term=2022-08-29