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Medical Cannabis To Replace Dangerous Anti-Anxiety Meds?

Written by Corre Addam

The sad reality is that anti-anxiety prescription medications often end up exacerbating symptoms in patients with the greatest needs…

Which is why a new study, suggesting that cannabis could be used instead of such medications, is garnering so much interest lately, as patients run to find a holistic and natural remedy to their ailments.

The cutting-edge study, which was published in the medical journal Psychopharmacology, found that daily cannabis users had a blunted stress reaction when exposed to a high-stress situation after a period of abstinence from cannabis. At the same time, non-cannabis users reported feeling anxious and experienced elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol when stressed.

Co-Author of the study, Dr. Carrie Cuttler, said, “The potential effects of cannabis on stress do appear to extend beyond the period of intoxication.” Having looked at 40 test subjects, who had used cannabis regularly over the last year, and 42 people who had taken it no more than ten times in their life, and not at all in the previous year, the study found that regular cannabis users enjoy a muted stress response to those who don’t take the herb.

That said, As Dr Cuttler told reporters, “We’re not yet comfortable saying whether that muted stress response is a good thing or a bad thing.” Cuttler added that there was a positive outcome also when it came to cannabis and dependency, “We looked at the withdrawal symptoms of chronic users to see if they experienced heightened levels of and cannabis cravings when stressed, and surprisingly, we didn’t find any evidence that they did.” Cuttler revealed.

Sadly, anxiety disorders are all too common in America, and are on the increase. An estimated 40 million Americans, equating to 18 percent of the population suffers in one way or another from anxiety. Doctors first line of defense is drugs like Xanax and Klonopin, which are highly addictive and damaging to health. As if that wasn’t bad enough for big pharma, who kill thousands of people annually with these drugs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and Zoloft also cause a mass of havoc in the lives of people who take them, playing dangerously with delicate brain chemistry.

Dr Cutter concluded with comments confirming that she intends to expand the study, to see if the ground-breaking findings still hold true, “One of the limitations of this research is that we can’t ethically manipulate who uses cannabis daily and who does not. So while our research indicates that they have a blunted stress response, it could be that people who are already less prone to stress are also more prone to being chronic cannabis users. With rats, we can manipulate both stress and cannabis.”

It remains to be seen what the upshot of this study will be, but it’s no doubt good news for patients who prefer a natural remedy, to one that could potentially kill them.

[Image credit- Pixabay]

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About the author

Corre Addam

Addam spends the lion's share of his day fixated on his computer screen. When he isn't in front of his computer, you'll most likely find him editing or researching his next fascinating article on his smartphone or tablet. When he manages to pull himself away from technology, you'll find him chilling hard somewhere, probably under a tree with an ice-cold Iced-tea, pondering life...