Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a phytochemical found in cannabis plants and is among the most common cannabinoids. It is obtained from the cannabis plants and accounts for around 40% of the plant’s extract. While THC and CBD both work with the body’s endocannabinoid system to change the distribution of neurotransmission, affecting mood, hunger, and pain response, their mechanisms of action are different.
People are becoming increasingly interested in CBD being effective in psychiatric settings as interest in the possible medicinal advantages of cannabis has developed. Although THC has been related to an elevated risk of psychosis, CBD has been shown to help with psychotic symptoms.
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What is Psychotic Depression?
Psychotic depression is a significant depression that arises when a chronic depression disease is accompanied by psychosis. One out of every four persons hospitalized for depression suffers from psychotic depression. Hallucinations, delusions, or some other type of psychosis might cause the psychosis.
CBD for Depression
Anxiety and depression are among the most common mental health problems that can affect a person’s health, social life, work abilities, and general well-being. To assist a person cure or manage depression, treatment includes prescription medicines. These remedies have undesirable side effects, like mood swings, sleeplessness, and sexual dysfunction.
In preliminary studies, CBD showed promise as a therapy for psychological distress, and it may have fewer adverse effects in certain people.
The findings of a 2014 study may provide light on why CBD might be beneficial in treating depression. In most trials, they claim that CBD has a favorable engagement with serotonin neurotransmitters.
Evidence of CBD consumption for mental illness
Serotonin affects various bodily processes, including a person’s mental state and emotions of happiness or well-being. The researchers looked at 83 papers that looked at cannabis to treat symptoms of mental health problems from 1980 to 2018. Dementia, anxiousness, PTSD, ADHD, psychosis, and Tourette syndrome were among the conditions studied.
Only 40 studies were randomized controlled trials, considered the gold standard in medical research. The majority were modest — with 10–40 participants — and only lasted 4 to 5 weeks.
Compared to a non-active placebo, researchers discovered that prescription THC, even without CBD, lowered anxiety symptoms in persons with various medical illnesses.
Most anxiety and depression research focused on illnesses such as chronic non-cancer agony and sclerosis, with clinical depression as a subsequent symptom.
According to the article’s authors, the decline in anxiety symptoms found in some trials might be due to the pharmacological THC alleviating the indications of the significant medical issue.
One research found that prescription THC exacerbated psychotic symptoms.
Does CBD affect Psychotic Depression?
While CBD was once assumed to have no pharmacological effects, research in both animals and humans has revealed that it can attenuate narcotic psychotic episodes and cognitive impairment after exposure to high doses of THC, perhaps through the endocannabinoid system. Furthermore, they claim that CBD may minimize the chances of psychosis in cannabis users.
However, most research demonstrating the potential advantages of CBD in psychosis were retrospective incident and controlled trials, limiting solid conclusions about CBD’s effectiveness.
In 2017, the first randomized placebo-controlled study (RCT) evaluated 88 individuals with psychosis who administered CBD or placebo as an adjuvant therapy to antipsychotics over six weeks. Pre- and post-treatment, symptomatology, cognition, and general functioning were evaluated.
Compared to those who received a placebo, individuals treated with CBD showed decreases in psychotic symptoms and improvements in functional and cognitive capacities. Furthermore, individuals who received active therapy were more likely to have their treating psychiatrist judge them as better.
Can CBD improve Psychotic Depression Symptoms?
Traditional antipsychotics are assumed to function by inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters including noradrenaline, acetylcholine, serotonin, and, most significantly, dopamine in the brain. The dopamine paradigm, which has characterized psychosis therapy too far, claims that too much dopamine in the brain produces psychotic symptoms.
Antipsychotic medicine inhibits dopamine synthesis by binding to dopamine receptors. However, dopamine production is considered to be expected in certain psychotic people. Exploring the effects of different neurotransmitter systems might lead to the development of novel therapeutic modalities.
Recent research looked at the effects of CBD on treatment-naive patients at high risk of developing psychosis, comparing their brain activity during a verbal learning task to that of unmedicated healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Overall, at-risk people have lower levels of engagement than healthy controls, while CBD recipients have considerably higher activation levels than placebo recipients.
According to the study, CBD may help partially correct changes in brain regions linked to the onset of psychosis.
Side Effects
CBD appears to have no adverse side effects when taken orally, inhaled, or applied topically.
If an individual is susceptible to the chemicals in CBD, one may have the following symptoms:
- Changes in appetite, and
- Weight loss due to diarrhea
CBD has the potential to interact with a variety of drugs and cause liver damage. A CBD medicine called Epidiolex has been approved by the (FDA) comes with a warning concerning the danger of liver issues in those who take it.
Although the findings of rodent research may not directly apply to humans, they do show that a product’s natural status does not always imply that it is entirely safe in high quantities.
If you’re thinking about using CBD, talk to your doctor about any drugs you’re taking to see if there are any potential interactions. Specific over-the-counter and nutritional remedies and prescription drugs may interact with CBD.
Conclusion
CBD is a powerful chemical that is gaining traction as a complementary medication. While there is some hopeful data for CBD’s potential use as an antidepressant in the future, additional human study is needed to discover whether it is safe and effective. Anyone considering using CBD for chronic depression should consult a doctor to learn more about using it and the potential for drug interactions.