About 3% of the global population has obsessive-compulsive disorder, a health condition that brings about intrusive thoughts and repetitive behavior. The traditional treatment option for it is medication, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or both. The Food and Drug Administration has only approved serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs for OCD.
Around 1/3 of individuals usually do not have a considerable reduction in their OCD symptoms despite using the above treatment options. So, naturally, many of them turn to alternative forms of OCD treatment. Several individuals claim that CBD helps to ease their symptoms, whereas researchers keep looking into CBD for anxiety disorders. Studies may be in their early phases, but some of these pieces of research have discovered promising outputs. Here, we will discuss the most recent research on CBD and anxiety disorder.
Can It Aid In Easing OCD Symptoms? Here Is What Research Says
Today, there are mainly hypothetical and anecdotal pieces of evidence that cannabidiol can alleviate these symptoms. This is because there exists little to no research that examines the efficacy of cannabidiol in treating OCD.
There exist some case reports about OCD patients with improved symptoms due to the use of cannabidiol or other phytocannabinoids. So, further large-scale pieces of research are required to assess how safe and effective cannabidiol is in treating the health issue.
In a recent study, researchers looked at how medical cannabis affects 87 individuals with OCD. They discovered that those OCD patients had the following improvements.
- Up to 60% of them could reduce their compulsions
- About 50% of them had fewer intrusive thoughts than before the start of the cannabis treatment
- Around 50% of them could reduce anxiety because of the treatment
Cannabis having higher amounts of cannabidiol produced a bigger reduction in those people’s compulsive-type behavior.
Anyhow, in a different 2020 study involving 14 participants, researchers weighed the primary effects of marijuana with varying amounts of cannabidiol and THC against a placebo. Then, they discovered that smoking CBD-dominant or THC-dominant cannabis had only a small amount of acute effect on the symptoms.
In What Way Is Cannabidiol Thought To Aid In Treating OCD Symptoms?
There are numerous casual factors for OCD, but there exists evidence that our endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a part in regulating repetitive behavior, fear, and anxiety.
CBD product components can interact with the ECS, thereby making changes to sleep, appetite, mood, and other biological processes.