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Cannabidiol may be effective in halving the severity of symptoms and impairment caused by chronic anxiety, a pilot study by Orygen, Australia’s center of excellence in youth mental health, has shown.
The Cannabidiol Youth Anxiety Pilot Study found that youth with treatment-resistant anxiety had an average reduction of 42.6% in the severity and impairment of anxiety after 12 weeks of treatment with cannabidiol, a component non-intoxicant from the Cannabis sativa plant, which is often known. like CBD.
Orygen Professor Paul Amminger, who led the study, said this level of improvement was remarkable.
“Young people had fewer panic attacks and were able to do things they couldn’t before like leave the house, go to school, participate in social situations, eat at restaurants, take public transportation or go on dates alone,” she said. Professor Amminger. .
“This is a striking change in the group that has had severe to very severe, treatment-resistant, long-standing anxiety.”
Symptom reduction was observed on two different scales: a physician rating scale (the Hamilton Anxiety Rating, 50.7%) and a self-rating scale (the Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale overall, 42.6%), which involved participants completing a questionnaire. about symptoms such as panic attacks, situational anxieties, worries and flashbacks.
Study co-investigator and Orygen chief executive Professor Patrick McGorry said the findings were promising for a significant number of young people, with Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on 22 July which showed that anxiety was the most common form of mental illness in young people. , which affects almost a third (31.5%) of people aged 16 to 24, almost double the rate of the general population.
“We are seeing more and more young people suffering from anxiety – it is the growing form of mental distress in young people and we urgently need innovation in treatment. Cannabidiol is a promising treatment option that appears to be safe and effective. We need more research to confirm- it and explore its value,” Professor McGorry said.
The pilot study included 31 participants aged 12–25 years who were recruited from Orygen’s primary care services. Participants had a diagnosed anxiety disorder and had not demonstrated significant improvement in anxiety severity after at least five sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
“The problem with current front-line treatments for anxiety (CBT and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant drugs) is that they only work in about half of the people who try them,” said the Professor Amminger.
“Anxiety disorders are very common, leaving large numbers of young people untreated, struggling with symptoms and developing secondary conditions, for example depression and substance use disorders.”
Orygen began exploring cannabidiol as an anxiety treatment after it was found to be effective in reducing anxiety in adults.
In Australia, cannabidiol has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as a treatment for children with rare forms of epilepsy (Dravet syndrome and Lennox Gastaut syndrome). Cannabidiol has been approved for clinical trials as a treatment for children in Australia with Tourette syndrome, fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.
“It is important to emphasize that cannabidiol does not induce any significant side effects or lead to the onset of neurological or psychiatric manifestations,” said Professor Amminger.
“Cannabidiol is non-intoxicating and does not contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), so it does not cause alterations in thinking and perception, does not get you ‘high’ and is not addictive. In fact, cannabidiol has been used to treat addictive behaviors in other research trials and may reduce some of the adverse and intoxicating effects of THC.”
The initial dose for the pilot study participants was one 200 mg cannabidiol capsule per day, which was increased to 400 mg after one week. Those who did not show significant improvement in anxiety symptoms increased their dose in 200 mg increments up to 800 mg per day. All participants were offered biweekly CBT for 12 weeks (five sessions).
“Our pilot study found that not only did cannabidiol help reduce anxiety symptoms, it was also very well tolerated; the most common side effects were mild sedation and mild fatigue, but it was in the time when the doses were increased and usually disappeared after a couple of days,” said Professor Amminger.
“We didn’t see side effects like suicidal thoughts, irritability, or sleep problems, which are not uncommon in people taking SSRIs.”
Although the results are promising, more research is needed.
“An open-label pilot study is limited by its design. Seeing a treatment effect in the treatment-resistant group is encouraging, but it could still be a placebo effect. The next step is a randomized controlled trial, which is the gold standard . to test a new intervention. This trial needs to be done in a much larger group — between 200 and 250 young people — to be able to say with some certainty that there are, or are not, real benefits and effects of the treatment,” he said the teacher. Amminger said.
Transdermal CBD no better than placebo for drug-resistant focal epilepsy More information: Cannabidiol for treatment-resistant anxiety disorders in youth: an open-label trial, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2022).
Provided by Orygen
Citation: Cannabidiol effective for youth with treatment-resistant anxiety, according to pilot study (2022, August 3) Retrieved August 4, 2022 from
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