Study: CBD helps young people with treatment-resistant anxiety

Published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in August 2022, this open-label trial examined the use of CBD in patients who had not responded to standard treatment for anxiety disorders.

The study included 31 young patients aged 12 to 25 who received add-on CBD for 12 weeks on a fixed-flexible schedule titrated up to 800 mg/day. 

The primary outcome was improvement in anxiety severity, measured with the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS), at week 12.

These findings suggest that CBD can reduce anxiety severity and has an adequate safety profile in young people with treatment-resistant anxiety disorders. 

Their data:

Mean (SD) OASIS scores decreased from 10.8 (3.8) at baseline to 6.3 (4.5) at week 12, corresponding to a −42.6% reduction (P < .0001).

Depressive symptoms (P < .0001), CGI-Severity scale scores (P = .0008), and functioning (P = .04) improved significantly.

There were no serious and/or unexpected adverse events.

The study abstract is here at Psychiatry.com.