A new study found that consuming cannabis may decrease a person's risk of anxiety and that continued consumption may make a person less anxious over time. Cannabis' calming effects are so powerful that lobbyists believe it will replace anti-anxiety medications in the near future.
Dr. Carrie Cuttler, a researcher and clinical assistant professor at Washington State University and co-author of the study said, based on their findings, the effects of cannabis on stress appears to "extend beyond the period of intoxication." However, she stressed that more research is needed to back up their own study.
The study, published in the medical journal Psychopharmacology, found that people who use cannabis daily or almost daily had a blunted stress reaction when exposed to a high-stress situation after a period of abstinence from marijuana. While non-cannabis users reported feeling anxious and experienced elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol when stressed, chronic cannabis users reported lower levels of anxiety, and their cortisol levels remained the same under high stress as they they were under no stress.
“The potential effects of cannabis on stress do appear to extend beyond the period of intoxication.”Dr. Carrie Cuttler, study co-authorThe research involved 40 people who had used cannabis chronically over the previous year and 42 people who’d used cannabis no more than 10 times in their lives and not at all in the previous year. All participants abstained from using cannabis from 12 to 18 hours prior to the study.
Image courtesy of: DonGoofy
