How Does Cannabis Use Affect Anxiety, Depression?
Although short-term cannabis use may lower perceived symptoms of depression, long-term use of the drug may actually worsen depression symptoms over time, according to new findings.
Researchers arrived at this conclusion following a study of data from 11,953 tracked sessions on the app Strainprint, which allows medical cannabis users to track changes in symptoms as a function of different doses and chemotypes of cannabis.
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Of these sessions, 3151 were assessed for depression, 5085 for anxiety, and 3717 for stress.
Results of the study showed that medical cannabis users perceived 50% and 58% reductions in anxiety and stress, respectively, after cannabis use, with 2 puffs perceived as sufficient to reduce depression and anxiety ratings, and at least 10 puffs for stress reduction.
The largest changes in depression ratings were produced by high cannabidiol (CBD; more than 9.5%)/low Δ9tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; less than 5.5%), whereas the largest perceived changes in stress were reported with high CBD (at least 11%)/high THC (at least 26.5%).
Over time, no changes in the perceived efficacy of cannabis were observed. However, the researchers noted that cannabis use in the long-term actually appeared to exacerbate baseline symptoms of depression, but not symptoms of anxiety or stress.
“Cannabis reduces perceived symptoms of negative affect in the short-term, but continued use may exacerbate baseline symptoms of depression over time,” the researchers concluded.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Cuttler C, Spradlin A, McLaughlin RJ. A naturalistic examination of the perceived effects of cannabis on negative affect. J Affective Dis. 2018;235:198-205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.04.054
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