Everybody wants a piece of the action.
Imagine your sweet little ol' grandma buying into the argument, "No, really - marijuana's OK now - the bible says so."
Arrived today in my email:
I can get with that - kinda - a little pot can go a long way in helping some people relax and keep their spirits up and improve their tolerance for certain therapies (chemo being the one most noted). But there's nothing in the literature that says anything about a link between CBD and living to be 180 years old.
In fact, the jury's still out on CBD having any clinical efficacy for anything, but it remains "promising".
Here's an abstract (via PubMed) from Journal Of Clinical Medicine Research:
Considering data from in vitro and in vivo studies, cannabidiol (CBD) seems to be a promising candidate for the treatment of both somatic and psychiatric disorders. The aim of this review was to collect dose(s), dosage schemes, efficacy and safety reports of CBD use in adults from clinical studies. A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Embase and Cochrane library for articles published in English between January 1, 2000 and October 25, 2019. The search terms used were related to cannabis and CBD in adults. We identified 25 studies (927 patients; 538 men and 389 women), of which 22 studies were controlled clinical trials (833 patients) and three were observational designs (94 patients) from five countries. Formulations, dose and dosage schemes varied significantly between studies. Varying effects were identified from the randomized controlled trials (RCTs), more apparent effects from non-RCTs and minor safety issues in general. From the controlled trials, we identified anxiolytic effects with acute CBD administration, and therapeutic effects for social anxiety disorder, psychotic disorder and substance use disorders. In general, studies were heterogeneous and showed substantial risks of bias. Although promising results have been identified, considerable variation in dosage schemes and route of administration were employed across studies. There was evidence to support single dose positive effect on social anxiety disorder, short medium-term effects on symptomatic improvement in schizophrenia and lack of effect in the short medium-term on cognitive functioning in psychotic disorders. Overall, the administration was well tolerated with mild side effects.
The lack of well-designed studies (ie: Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo Controlled) is frustrating for clinicians, who generally take an attitude that as long as it does no harm, and it provides some added comfort for the patient, why not?
But that "does no harm" part is kinda tricky. It can't be harmless if it diverts attention or resources away from therapies that've been proven effective.
My complaint is that decent folks are being suckered into another snake-oil scam by bible-thumpin' hucksters.
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