Contrary to what many studies show, a new survey affirms that people suffering from chronic anxiety would benefit from consuming cannabis.
- Anxiety is a common psychiatric disorder that affects women more than men.
- A new study indicates that within a month, regular cannabis use lowered the anxiety levels of the majority of people included in the cohort.
- Cannabis users also reported an improvement in their mood.
A new study reveals that cannabis use does not increase anxiety and could even relieve it. This work contradicts numerous studies which have already demonstrated the opposite trend.
Anxiety and cannabis: study methodology
361 people aged 21 to 70, all suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, were included in the trial. 44 of these individuals reported that they had not used cannabis in the past six months and did not feel like using it to cope with anxiety. The other participants said they had used cannabis at least once over the same period and wanted to use it to combat anxiety.
Individuals who declared that they did not want to use cannabis to cope with their anxiety formed the non-users group. The remaining participants were randomly divided into three groups based on the type of products they were going to use during the experiment. One group used a product with a high amount of THC (over 24%) but little CBD (less than 1%). The second group used a product with a high amount of CBD but little THC. The third group used a product containing equal amounts of THC and CBD (12% each).
Members of the last three groups cited above consumed the product assigned to them for four weeks. At the middle and end of the experiment, all participants went to the researchers’ laboratory to take measurements. For example, they made assessments of their anxiety levels and indicated how often they had used cannabis.
Cannabis: a reduction in anxiety in one month
The results indicate that within one month, all groups of cannabis users showed a reduction in anxiety symptoms. They also reported an improvement in their mood. The CBD-dominant cannabis group also showed a reduction in “psychological tension” compared to the other two groups of cannabis users.
Additionally, groups using THC-dominant cannabis products and cannabis containing equal amounts of THC and CBD showed increased paranoia compared to the group using CBD-dominant cannabis.
“These results indicate that THC does not increase anxiety and that CBD-dominated forms of cannabis are associated with a reduction in tension that may translate into longer-term decreases in anxiety symptoms,” conclude the authors of the study.
Anxiety disorders are twice as common in women as in men. They affect around 15 to 20% of French people.
