Marijuana not an ideal anxiety treatment option

Dear Dr. Roach: I am hoping you can weigh in on the use of cannabidiol (hemp-derived) for managing anxiety. My son has diagnoses of major depression and ADD. He has done a lot of online research and is interested in using CBD to manage periods where his anxiety is elevated, as he does not like the side effects of the typical pharma meds. We were hoping you could add medical depth to CBD usage.

I have had a many of these since 9/11 (I share my story on my main website http://MasteringYou.us). I want you all to know what it looks like and how it can immobilize you. This is a full-blown Anxiety Attack.

Paul Shaw

Published on Apr 23, 2016 It's humbling and somewhat embarrassing to post a video at my most vulnerable. To this date, I have never watched this. However, I believe it is important for those that maybe don't suffer from anxiety to see the often DAILY struggle many go through. I've worked really hard to do what I can to alleviate my anxiety. Medication, counseling, meditation and even major life and career changes. I don't experience the attacks anymore but like a muscle, it requires my constant attention. Many aren't lucky enough to have the ability to control their anxiety. It's not their fault. Be there for them. Learn for them. Help them.This was me 3 to 4 times a week. Every morning. I'd wake up at 4am almost every morning, my heart racing, my thoughts fast and fierce. By 7:30am I'd be in a full attack very similar to the below. It would last about an hour to an hour and a half. I would be physical, emotionally and mentally exhausted but I need to gather myself. I needed to go to work. My job, more specifically someone at my job was a major cause of my anxiety attacks. So, every morning after experiencing close to 5 hours of anxiety I needed to muscle myself into the cause of it all and try to make it through the day. In some ways, I was lucky that I knew the cause of my anxiety. I was able to make the changes I needed to make to get myself out of that situation. Many aren't lucky enough to know the reason. They can't explain how they feel or why they feel this way.

Dear D.W.: There is a great deal more research now on the use of marijuana and its major derivatives, tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol. However, the research is far from complete, owing to the difficulty in working directly with marijuana, which is categorized as a Schedule I drug in the United States. Some states allow medical use of marijuana, but it remains prohibited federally, leading to confusion. In addition, high-quality research on any drug for psychiatric conditions is difficult to do, and marijuana is controversial, with some parties absolutely convinced that it is effective for many disorders, and others equally convinced that it is useless or harmful.

In trying to keep an open mind and avoid biases, I find from multiple studies that the individual variation in how these compounds affect the brain is striking. Where standardized doses can cause one person to feel relaxed and more sociable, another person with exactly the same dose can become panicked, paranoid and even psychotic. Also, even in people for whom marijuana works, one dose may be effective at reducing anxiety (which probably is why many people with anxiety disorders use cannabis), while higher doses increase the risk of panic disorders. Since exact dosing is difficult or impossible with natural forms of the compounds (any given strain will have different proportions of THC and CBD, and the amount per gram of plant material changes from plant to plant), marijuana itself is not an ideal choice for treatment.

If it were possible to get CBD without THC, that might be beneficial. CBD acts on different receptors in the brain from those that act on THC. Pure CBD does not have the same effects as THC, including the euphoria (“high”). Animal studies and some human studies have shown that anti-anxiety properties of CBD at a low dose reduced panic. The large pharmacology companies are actively looking for compounds that have these beneficial effects without untoward side effects. In the meantime, I see advertising for products that are supposed to be pure CBD, but I do not know how they are tested for purity.

There are long-term side effects of natural marijuana. In the case of your son, there is evidence that marijuana use during adolescence increases the risk of psychotic disorders later in life. It’s not clear if this risk is conferred by THC, CBD or something else in marijuana, but it’s one more reason to be cautious.

You can find every type of CBD product and the purity of the product on this website.

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