Name: CBD Helps Anxiety Patients in a Clinical Trial
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Are the chemical compounds found in cannabis, including CBD, a potential treatment for reducing anxiety? Here's what one clinical study is finding—and the story of one of its patients.

Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive and not known to be intoxicating.

CBD Helps Anxiety Patients in a Clinical Trial

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Are the chemical compounds found in cannabis, including CBD, a potential treatment for reducing anxiety? Here's what one clinical study is finding—and the story of one of its patients.

Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive and not known to be intoxicating.

Body & Brain

CBD Helps Anxiety Patients in a Clinical TrialPublished: October 21, 2021Narrator: Neuroscientist Staci Gruber has been running clinical trials following cannabis use for a range of conditionsToday, Gruber is meeting with Erin, a graduate student enrolled in a study testing CBD as a potential treatment for reducing anxietyStaci Gruber: How's the anxiety? In all honesty, how is it?Erin: I started not getting full panic attacks, but like little baby, like half. Narrator: CBD is one of the main components found in cannabis but unlike THC, CBD is non psychoactive and not known to be intoxicatingNarrator: Erin was once outgoing and even performed on stage. But in high school, panic attacks became unmanageableErin: A panic attack is essentially your fight or flight system going out of control. Gruber: They are a completely unexpected tidal wave of events. Erin: My heart's beating. I'm hot and dizzy and nauseous. Gruber: They can't breathe. They're sweating. You often hear about people who go to the emergency room. Laurie: We get these phone calls night and day. Her mind just raced. Is she going to fall down? Is she going to faint? Like, was she going to die? Gruber: So imagine this multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. I think you would do almost anything to try to prevent that from happening. Narrator: Then Erin began taking a cannabis extract high in CBDDuring the part of the study where both patients and clinicians know which treatment is being administered -- known as the open label phaseGruber: This is the very first clinical trial that looks at a whole plant, full spectrum product, which means it has everything from the plant, we pulled anything out. And for Erin and for the majority of our patients, at least in the open label phase of this study, we saw very dramatic improvements in their symptoms of anxiety relatively quickly. Laurie: It was striking. It was profound, and it was within two weeks of her starting the clinical study. This is a whole new kid, someone who was very reticent to go off on her own, to walk down the street on her own or to go try something new, which all of a sudden sending pictures of places she was exploring and feeling just better Narrator: Until all the data are in and analyzed from a double blinded clinical trial, Gruber can't rule out a placebo effect. And more research is needed to see how patients respond after long-term use of CBD.But Erin sees a profound difference. Erin: I have reached for my CBD in the middle of an act of panic attack, and as someone who normally would have reached for a benzo and knows that feeling, I can say that the CBD didn't take it away as much as a benzodiazepine, but I definitely felt relief. And I can't tell you the last time I had a panic attack, to be totally honest.

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CBD Helps Anxiety Patients in a Clinical Trial

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Support Provided By

Explore More

What is the Endocannabinoid System?

How Cannabis Affects Teens' Brains

The Cannabis Question