The cannabis industry is currently making waves across different industries for a number of important reasons. The once-controversial market is slowly easing its way out of the shadows of being an illegal drug, with countries like Canada full embracing its benefits and potential.
Cannabis, particularly its compound cannabidiol (CBD), is getting much-deserved attention because it has the makings of the next major market that could bring so much for the economy and the medical industry as a whole. CBD, via CBD oil, is expected to gather an impressive revenue of about $1 billion in less than five years.
According to Hemp Gazette, a bulk of these sales will result from the medical benefits of CBD, particularly the sale of the breakthrough Epidiolex, the first FDA-approved CBD drug for epilepsy.
And now there could be more reasons for people to look to CBD for relief.
Relief from depression
According to Drug Target Review, a study conducted by Brazilian and Danish scientists in Sao Paulo State University showed that unlike synthetic drugs which are proven ineffective 40 percent of the time, taking a single dose of CBD can significantly eliminate the symptoms of depression the same day the medicine was taken and maintain its effects for a full week. This is a big difference compared to commercial antidepressants which take several weeks to take effect.
The study, conducted on laboratory rats, seemed to have proven medical claims that CBD can be used for the treatment of broad-spectrum depression. Based on their research, enzymatic inhibitors from CBD has the potential therapeutic effects to treat mental disorders such as depression.
The study, which first appeared in the Journal of Molecular Neurobiology, revealed the findings of Amanda Juliana Sales, a Ph.D. scholar at the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP and was supported by Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development and Denmark’s Aarhus University Research Foundation.
The research emphasized that CBD does not have psychoactive effects or causes dependence on the substance.
The CBD extracted for the experiment came from marijuana. “The main psychoactive component of marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC. Cannabidiol, on the contrary, blocks some of the effects of THC,” said FAPESP Thematic Project coordinator Francisco Silveira Guimarães, a Professor at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP).
According to the journal, the scientists who conducted the research made us of rat and mouse lines which are known to develop symptoms of depression. A total of about 367 animals were used.
A series of tests were then conducted, submitting the subjects to various stress tests like forced swimming. Some of the subjects were injected with CBD in various dosages while the rest were given a saline solution.
After the experiment, the researchers concluded that those who took CBD showcased antidepressant-like effects which were displayed immediately and was sustained throughout the experiment, even lasting for a full seven days after that one dosage.
After a week, it was only then that the scientists noticed the rise of synaptic proteins, linked to depression among humans.
The immediacy of the effects could prove to be important especially among humans whose depression has become so serious that it could potentially lead to weeks of suffering from the risk of suicide. Taking CBD, according to the study, can offer immediate relief.
Safer to use
The best way of comparing CBD with synthetic, anti-depressants is to consider its lasting effects. Cannabis has actually been known to be an effective substance that also helps people who have trouble sleeping and has been used for centuries already. Getting better sleep actually helps control anxiety attacks and other mental disorders in general.
This is a better alternative to synthetic drugs like sleeping pills that people can buy over the counter because sleeping pills pose the danger of addiction. In fact, there are already roughly 38 million prescriptions of a certain type of sleeping pills, and this has been recognized as a factor for the rising number of sleeping pill-caused addiction.
Now when it comes to CBD, the best products are those derived from hemp, a close cousin of marijuana. Compared to the latter, CBD oil from hemp contains small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, known to cause psychoactive effects to consumers. Because of this, people should be careful in choosing what products to purchase should they decide to turn to CBD oil to address mental disorders.
There are many cases where patients claim that CBD helped them control their depression. In the U.K., one individual shared how taking CBD oil at least once a day has helped him manage a year of living with depression.
Chris Davis shared that taking antidepressant pills wasn’t helping him at all because it only made him feel low most of the time. He would often take alcohol along with the pills to help manage his condition and he eventually got worse.
After taking CBD oil (as a tincture), he felt more himself and became motivated to once more change his life for the better.
Depression and anxiety are considered to be a growing concern these days because it affects not just one’s health but other aspects like social life and productivity. Having a safe alternative like CBD could help not just a few people suffering from the mental disorder, but thousands, most of whom are suffering silently until it’s too late to be addressed.
