A new longitudinal study, published in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports, has found that the consumption of legal cannabis is associated with notable reductions in levels of daily anxiety, with 93.5% of participants reporting symptom relief.
Researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University tracked 416 medical cannabis patients over 45 days, finding that cannabis demonstrated the largest anxiety relief when compared to other substances and activities, including alcohol, anxiolytic medication, exercise and meditation.
The findings come as current anxiety treatments, such as benzodiazepines, face increasing scrutiny for harmful side effects and addiction risks.
To be included in the study, participants had to be over 18, be a medical cannabis patient prescribed by a doctor in Florida, commit to purchasing medical cannabis products for the entirety of the study period, and be suffering from anxiety.
At the start of the study, all participants completed the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) survey, a standardised tool for measuring anxiety. The average score of all the participants was 29.58, placing them in the moderate to severe anxiety category.
Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire on their current and past cannabis and other substance use, and how this use affected their anxiety. They were asked which sort of cannabis product they used, and how they used it.
The cohort was then tracked electronically for 45 days, during which time they received daily text messages at a pre-arranged time. In the message, a link to a questionnaire probed participants on their level of anxiety before and after using their medical cannabis, their cannabis use for that day, and asked them to provide information on any other activities they engaged in.
Participants were compensated for their role in the study by being entered into a raffle for an Amazon gift voucher.
The findings showed that nearly all participants found relief from their symptoms of anxiety after using medical cannabis. 93.5% found cannabis to help their anxiety, 4.4% found no change to their anxiety after using cannabis, and 2.1% found medical cannabis to exacerbate their symptoms.
When compared to other substances and activities recorded by the cohort, cannabis was shown to have the biggest positive effect on symptoms of anxiety. Age, sex, and race were not shown to affect how anxiety was treated by medical cannabis.
The researchers found that overall, cannabis demonstrated its ability to reduce symptoms of anxiety over a prolonged period of time, although in those who were more experienced with cannabis, the effects appeared to diminish slightly over time.
“Medical cannabis continued to lower daily anxiety levels in a similar fashion over 45 days,” the researchers wrote. “While novice medical cannabis patients showed similar anxiety relief reductions compared to those who were experienced, the sensitivity analysis has shown it to be more impactful among novice individuals.”
They suggested this could mean that medical cannabis, when used over the long term, may have a reduced ability to improve symptoms like anxiety, or it could simply be that some individuals have high expectations initially.
