According to a small study, led by Medical University of South Carolina neuroscientist Erin Martin, cannabis products may really have an antidepressant effect.
“An increasing number of people struggling with anxiety and/or depression are trying cannabis products for symptom management,” explains the study.
The study had looked at 368 cannabis users and 170 non-using controls, and asked them to complete an online survey with details about their anxiety and depression, sleep, quality of life, chronic pain issues, and their use of cannabis.
The researchers used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to analyze the participants’ experiences. On the HADS, a score above eight indicates clinical concern, but the score can go as high as 21.
For those who took cannabis products it showed lower levels of depression, but not anxiety. A greater proportion of those who took cannabis also scored below 8 on the HADS relative to controls. Cannabis users had also reported better sleep in the last month than the controls, and rated their quality of life higher.
Additionally the study found that when a small number of the non-users took up cannabis in a follow up, anxiety also dropped in those participants.
“While we observed no effect of medicinal cannabis use on anxiety at baseline,” the researchers wrote. “Participants that initiated cannabis use during the follow-up period reported a significant reduction in anxiety that was not mirrored in Non-initiators.”
The study also found that the effect was strongest amongst those using products with larger amounts of cannabidiol (CBD), as opposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and wasn’t affected by those also taking ‘traditional’ antidepressants.
“It is possible that some of the symptom improvement reported by medicinal cannabis users can be attributable to an expectancy effect, especially in consideration of the low daily CBD doses reported by participants relative to those used in previous clinical studies,” the team wrote.
“Similarly, controls were people that were considering the use of medicinal cannabis to treat their condition. Therefore, it is also not surprising that people who believed medicinal cannabis might assist with their condition enough to initiate use would perceive a substantial benefit.”
