Cannabis and anxiety, studies support cannabis as treatment.

Anxiety disorders, it’s more common than we think.

A bit of anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone experiences at times. We all feel anxious, or nervous, when faced with a problem at work or at home, before taking a test, or making any important decisions. This is perfectly normal and most people manage to deal with that feeling at the time. But anxiety disorders, however, are different. They can cause such distress that it interferes with a person’s ability to lead a normal productive life. For people with anxiety disorders, worry and fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be crippling. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses in America; more than 40 million are affected by these debilitating illnesses each year in America only. World wide the numbers are even bigger. Getting a treatment that works , can make a huge difference in peoples everyday life.

Here are some of themore common anxiety disorders people deal with:

• Panic disorder: People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats), and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or “going crazy.”

• Social anxiety disorder: Also called social phobia, social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.

• Specific phobias: A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights, or flying. The level of fear is usually inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.

• Generalized anxiety disorder: This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.

Here are some studies on cannabis and anxiety:

• Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an anxiolytic drug (PubMed)

• Antidepressant-Like and Anxiolytic-Like Effects of Cannabidiol: A Chemical Compound of Cannabis Sativa (PubMed)

• Cannabidiol reduces the anxiety induced by simulated public speaking in treatment-naïve social phobia patients (PubMed)

• Neural basis of anxiolytic effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in generalized social anxiety disorder (PubMed)

• Central anandamide deficiency predicts stress-induced anxiety: behavioral reversal through endocannabinoid augmentation (PubMed)

• Effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on regional cerebral blood flow (PubMed)

• The anxiolytic-like effects of cannabidiol injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis are mediated by 5-HT1A receptors (PubMed)

• The anxiolytic effect of cannabidiol on chronically stressed mice depends on hippocampal neurogenesis: involvement of the endocannabinoid system (PubMed)

• Plant-based medicines  for anxiety disorders, part 2: A review of clinical studies with supporting preclinical evidence (PubMed)