Scientific Research Into Medicinal Cannabis And Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by significant feelings of anxiety and fear. Anxiety is a worry about future events and fear is a reaction to current events. These feelings may cause physical symptoms, such as a fast heart rate and shakiness.

Anxiety disorder is an umbrella term that includes different conditions:

• Panic disorder. You feel terror that strikes at random. During a panic attack, you may also sweat, have chest pain, and feel palpitations(unusually strong or irregular heartbeats). Sometimes you may feel like you’re choking or having a heart attack.
• Social anxiety disorder. Also called social phobia, this is when you feel overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. You fixate about others judging you or on being embarrassed or ridiculed.
• Specific phobias. You feel intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying. The fear goes beyond what’s appropriate and may cause you to avoid ordinary situations.
• Generalized anxiety disorder. You feel excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little or no reason.

We have listed the latest scientific research into medicinal cannabis and it’s potential uses treating Anxiety: 

• The anxiolytic effect of cannabidiol on chronically stressed mice depends on hippocampal neurogenesis: involvement of the endocannabinoid system
• The anxiolytic-like effects of cannabidiol injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis are mediated by 5-HT1A receptors
• Plant-based medicines for anxiety disorders, part 2: A review of clinical studies with supporting preclinical evidence
• Effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on regional cerebral blood flow
• Central anandamide deficiency predicts stress-induced anxiety: behavioral reversal through endocannabinoid augmentation
• Cannabidiol reduces the anxiety induced by simulated public speaking in treatment-naïve social phobia patients
• Neural basis of anxiolytic effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in generalized social anxiety disorder
• Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an anxiolytic drug
• Antidepressant-Like and Anxiolytic-Like Effects of Cannabidiol: A Chemical Compound of Cannabis Sativa

How can CBD Oil Help with Anxiety?

In one test published in Neuropsychopharmacology (1) in 2011, 24 people diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder were given either CBD or a placebo after which they were asked to perform a simulation public speaking test. According to the trial ‘pretreatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech. The placebo group presented higher anxiety, cognitive impairment, discomfort, and alert levels when compared with the control group’.

Another test published the same year in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, used neuroimaging on ten people also with social anxiety who had taken CBD to find out what parts of the brain are affected. Administering CBD ‘was associated with significantly decreased subjective anxiety’ and through the neuroimaging they could see that this was due to CBD’s effect on ‘activity in limbic and paralimbic brain areas’. The limbic system is largely responsible for our emotional life and formation of memories.

So far the trials have been few and carried out on a limited number of subjects, but the results are certainly promising.

Related Articles on our Blog : CBD Oil for Anxiety – Does CBD oil help Anxiety

 

 

THIS INFORMATION IS PRESENTED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ETERNAL PLANTS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION TO PROVIDE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF CANNABIDIOL. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES DO NOT CONSTITUTE AN ENDORSEMENT OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS BY ETERNAL PLANTS AND NONE SHOULD BE INFERRED.