21/01/2025
  • Insight & Research

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are the world’s most common mental disorders affecting an estimated 4% of the global population at any one time. Approximately 1 in 4 people with anxiety disorders receive treatment for their condition and they often have onset during childhood or adolescence.

Anxiety disorders are the one of the most common reasons for seeking treatment with cannabis based medicinal products (CBMPs). There are well evidenced and documented treatments for anxiety that should always be considered first line including use of therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and use of standard anti-anxiety medication including Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Fluoxetine or Sertraline. However, some people may find these ineffective or problematic regards adverse effects and the endocannabinoid system has been identified as a potential therapeutic target.

An analysis of clinical outcomes of medicinal cannabis therapy for generalised anxiety disorder (Ergisi et al., 20221) looked at changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and clinical safety showing statistically significant improvement in sleep quality and reduced anxiety scores at 1, 3 and 6 months. The study analysed cases from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry showing improvements in anxiety as measured by General Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) as well as sleep quality measured by the Sleep Quality Scale (SQS).

References

1 M Ergisi et al. 2022 “UK Medical Cannabis Registry: an analysis of clinical outcomes of medicinal cannabis for generalised anxiety disorder”. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology Vol 15, Issue 4.

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