Anxiety is a common mental issue in most people. However, feeling anxious too much or too frequently would affect daily life and overall health.
To treat anxiety, you may need a combination of medications, cognitive behavioral therapy, or counseling. In some cases, these treatments are not effective in managing the symptoms. That’s why scientists have to keep working to identify more treatment options.
A recent study identified that cannabidiol or CBD, the component of cannabis that does not make you feel high, would be a safe and effective treatment for young adults.
The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
There were 31 participants, aging from 12 to 25 years old, in this open-label trial. All of them were diagnosed with anxiety disorder and did not respond well to previous treatments.
For a period of 12 weeks, they received CBD with dosages up to 800 mg/d if necessary.
The results showed that all participants reported a more than 40 percent reduction in the severity of anxiety. In addition, they experienced a reduction in depressive symptoms and an improvement in occupational and social functioning.
As a result, CBD would be a potential treatment for anxiety in young people who have not responded well to previous options.
Nevertheless, the sample size of the study was relatively small. The whole project also lasted only 23 weeks. Further research should be done in the future with more people and a longer period of time to verify the findings.
While CBD may bring many benefits, it would also cause certain side effects. Participants in this study experienced hot flashes, cold chills, fatigue, and low mood. However, no major complications were reported.
A placebo effect would be possible as well. This is an uncontrolled and open-label trial. Thus, it is uncertain to draw casual inferences about the effectiveness of CBD in relation to other effects. To resolve this problem, a randomized control trial should be included in future research.
Nevertheless, the authors claimed that the data supporting it was not a placebo effect. They were very optimistic about this study’s results and believed that CBD can be a potential treatment for anxiety disorder. Especially, CBD is more tolerable and causes fewer side effects in young people than antidepressants.
In addition, they hoped that further studies in the future will find out more effective treatment options for anxiety.
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