A recent study, published on Sept. 9, involved researchers examining the effects of medical cannabis, specifically CBD-dominant cannabis, on those suffering from anxiety and depression. This would help to show that medical cannabis has uses beyond using it for physical or neurological ailments. For the most part, researchers have focused on looking at how patients could use it to treat pain, Tourette Syndrome, or even stuttering.

Study

The researchers recruited participants, who included 368 medical cannabis users and 170 controls. The participants completed an online survey assessing a number of different topics. These topics included anxiety and depressive symptoms, cannabis product use, sleep, quality of life, and comorbid chronic pain. The researchers then invited the participants who completed the survey to complete additional surveys at 3-month intervals. The researchers then assessed baseline differences between cannabis users and controls using different tests and models. They did this to assess the impact of initiating cannabis product use, sustained use, or discontinuation of use on anxiety and depressive symptoms at follow-up.

Results

At the baseline, the researchers found that there was an association between medical cannabis use and lower depression, but not anxiety. The medical cannabis users reported superior sleep and quality of life. They also reported less pain on average. During the follow-up period, the researchers associated the initiation of medical cannabis with significantly decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms. Upon studying the results based on the type of cannabis the subject used, the researchers found that CBD-dominant cannabis products resulted in lower depression and anxiety scores. The researchers found these scores using a scale called HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale).

Discussion

The researchers showed in their study that medical cannabis could be used for more than what most have studied it for. Where most studies involve patients using it for physical or neurological ailments, this study showed that patients could use it for anxiety or depression as well. However, the downside to this study was that there was not a designated cannabis product studied. This means that the subjects were using different types of cannabis products. For instance, 82 percent used CBD-dominant cannabis products. This 82 percent includes those that used only those products and those that used it alongside THC-dominant products.

As a result of this, there could be more factors affecting the results of the study. As such, researchers will need to continue to study this before it can be definitively shown as a treatment.

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