Promising New Research on CBD and Anxiety

A new study on the effects of CBD (cannabidiol) and anxiety finds “significant improvement in patients levels of anxiety, as well as improvements in sleep, quality of life and cognition.

The study titled, Clinical and cognitive improvement following full-spectrum, high-cannabidiol treatment for anxiety: open-label data from a two-stage, phase 2 clinical trial, was published this month by researchers at Harvard’s Medical School.

This research was published in the highly respected science journal, Nature. 

The study involved 14 patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders. The patients were given CBD oil sublingually (under the tongue) three times a day for four weeks.

After the four week CBD trial patients reported reduced anxiety, as well as improvements in mood, sleep, quality of life and “measures reflecting their self-control and ability to think flexibly.”

Patients involved in the study reported no serious side effects. The researchers are now looking to expand this study to include more patients in the test group.

According to the researchers about 34% of American adults are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at some point in their life.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Anxiety Disorder symptoms include:

• Feeling nervous, restless or tense
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
• Having an increased heart rate
• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Feeling weak or tired
• Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
• Having trouble sleeping
• Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
• Having difficulty controlling worry
• Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

CBD is short for Cannabidiol and it is derived from hemp which is a cousin of the cannabis plant. So while CBD is a component of marijuana, it comes from the hemp plant, specifically in the form of hemp seed oil, and does not deliver a “high” like, for instance, cannabis sativa and indica which contain the psychoactive ingredient THC. 

CBD can be taken lots of different ways, but the most popular is high quality CDB oil. You can take it orally in a capsule form or a tincture and just drop some oil under your tongue to ingest it (or my favorite, CBD gummies). There are also topical sprays and muscle rubs containing CBD that your can put on your skin to deal with things like back pain.

If you are interested in talking to a health professional about your health and how CBD might help you, consider booking a free, online consultation with one of our team at Hello MD. They can go over your medical history, current prescriptions and make recommendations on how you might use CBD to help you.