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For anyone struggling with anxiety or depression, there is no such thing as an ideal treatment option. Talking therapies work about half the time, but they\u2019re not always available, affordable or convenient. Antidepressant drug treatments also work about half the time, but some people might be put off by potential side effects, such as sickness and loss of appetite, and the risk of what\u2019s been called a \u2018discontinuation syndrome\u2019 or \u2018withdrawal syndrome\u2019 \u2013 including flu-like symptoms and insomnia. For these reasons, researchers are always on the look-out for alternative treatment options.<\/p>\n
According to a new study carried out at the Medical University of South Carolina published in Frontiers in Psychiatry<\/em>, one promising candidate in this regard is cannabis<\/a> \u2013\u00a0a drug that many states in the US have already licensed for other medicinal uses, though it remains illegal in the UK.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever taken cannabis recreationally and experienced a high or a calming haze, you\u2019ll see why the drug might have potential as an antidepressant or anti-anxiety treatment. Indeed, research carried out at the Community Forensic Mental Health Service, Brisbane, Australia into the subjective effects of cannabis show that feelings of euphoria, relaxation and pain relief<\/a> are a common experience.<\/p>\n Added to that, there\u2019s also mouse research that\u2019s shown the possible antidepressant effects of cannabis. These kind of studies typically involve the mouse being made to do something stressful (such as an exhausting swim) to model the effects of feeling depressed. One study carried out by a team at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil has shown that giving the mice cannabis after the stressful experience has a kind of therapeutic effect for them<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more about depression:<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s important to bear in mind that cannabis has two main ingredients \u2013\u00a0delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is responsible for the high, and cannabidiol (CBD), which has a relaxing effect and which you might have seen being sold as a food supplement added to coffee or brownies \u2013 though usually in tiny amounts that are unlikely to have much of an effect.<\/p>\n Part of the appeal of cannabidiol, in particular, as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety is that it appears less likely to induce the kind of withdrawal effect seen with existing anti-depressant drugs.<\/p>\n For the new study, the US team led by Erin Martin<\/a> recruited hundreds of participants who showed symptoms of depression and\/or anxiety and were either already taking cannabis for medicinal reasons to help relieve their symptoms or were interested in doing so \u2013 the latter group acted as controls. The researchers then completed further surveys over the next few years to see whether any of the controls had begun taking cannabis, and whether any of the participants\u2019 anxiety and depression treatments had changed.<\/p>\n The most promising findings were for depression \u2013\u00a0the participants who were using cannabis at the start of the study reported lower depression symptoms than those who weren\u2019t. What\u2019s more, they also reported better sleep, less pain and all round better quality of life.<\/p>\n Perhaps even more compelling is the finding that those participants who began using cannabis later in the study then also showed reductions in their depression symptoms compared with the participants who did not start using cannabis \u2013 in fact, this latter group showed no change in their symptoms from their baseline scores at the start of the study. Martin and her team found these results encouraging: \u201cThese combined cross-sectional and longitudinal findings show a consistent anti-depressant effect of medicinal cannabis,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Read more about psychotropic medicine:<\/strong><\/p>\n The results for anxiety were less striking but still positive. Although there were no differences in baseline anxiety symptoms between participants taking cannabis at the study start and those who weren\u2019t, the participants who began to use cannabis later in the study went on to report reduced anxiety symptoms compared with the participants who never used cannabis.<\/p>\n The study has prompted news headlines around the world suggesting that cannabis could be a useful treatment for depression and improving quality of life, so how excited should we be?<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that this was not a properly controlled, randomised trial \u2013 in fact it wasn\u2019t even close. The participants were recruited on the basis of being interested in exploring the medicinal benefits of cannabis which ramps up the likelihood of so called \u2018expectancy effects\u2019 or placebo effects \u2013 which is exactly the kind of thing that proper trials are designed to control for. The researchers acknowledge this in their paper \u2013 \u201cPlacebo-controlled clinical trials are necessary to further explore the potential efficacy of CBD in the treatment of anxiety and depression,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n The researchers also relied on the participants\u2019 testimony for just about everything \u2013\u00a0whether or not they were using cannabis, what kind it was, and any effects it might have had. In fact, over a quarter of the participants using cannabis in this study said they didn\u2019t actually know what kind of cannabis it was. Most of those who were aware reported that their cannabis was CBD-dominant.<\/p>\n However, we don\u2019t know what doses the participants in this study were using, nor the role played by any other ingredients in their particular cannabis. Similarly, if you buy cannabis on the street, the chances are you won\u2019t know its strength nor what balance of THC and CBD it has. What\u2019s more, a typical cannabis leaf will contain dozens of other ingredients that may have their own physiological effects.<\/p>\n In short, even if the positive results in this study are real, we\u2019re still a very long way from knowing what kind of cannabis, and in what dose, would be optimal for treating depression and anxiety. Added to that, it\u2019s worth remembering that cannabis use has been linked with increased risk of psychosis \u2013 especially for those people with an existing vulnerability. There\u2019s also evidence from a study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada that THC-heavy forms of cannabis \u2013 the kind you\u2019re likely to take recreationally \u2013 could actually contribute toward increased risk of depression over the long term<\/a>, though the jury is still out on that question.<\/p>\n Overall, while these new results are promising, and they offer hope of a new treatment options for treatment and anxiety in the future, we\u2019re still a long way from the day that your GP prescribes you a course of spliffs to boost your mood or calm your nerves.<\/p>\n