SynthesisJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2022
Cannabidiol in clinical and preclinical anxiety research. A systematic review into concentration-effect relations using the IB-de-risk tool.
Synthesis in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional neuroimaging of Cannabidiol in stress and anxiety: a systematic review.Frontiers in neuroimaging · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of cannabidiol placebo on amygdala-based neural responses to an acute stressor.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- The effects of cannabidiol on worry and anxiety among high trait worriers: a double-blind, randomized placebo controlled trial.Psychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Long-term cannabidiol treatment did not restore bone microstructural defects in skeletally mature ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rats.JBMR plus · 2026Article
- Cannabidiol abrogates cue-induced anxiety associated with normalization of mitochondria-specific transcripts and linoleic acid in the nucleus accumbens shell.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Cannabidiol in Foods and Food Supplements: Evaluation of Health Risks and Health Claims.Nutrients · 2025Review
- The Impact of Cannabidiol Treatment on Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Effects of cannabidiol on fear conditioning in anxiety disorders: decreased threat expectation during retention, but no enhanced fear re-extinction.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Unveiling behavioral and molecular neuroadaptations related to the antidepressant action of cannabidiol in the unpredictable chronic mild stress model.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPreclinical research suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) may have therapeutic potential in pathological anxiety. Dosing guidelines to inform future human studies are however lacking.
aimWe aimed to predict the therapeutic window for anxiety-reducing effects of CBD in humans based on preclinical models.
methodsWe conducted two systematic searches in PubMed and Embase up to August 2021, into pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data of systemic CBD exposure in humans and animals, which includes anxiety-reducing and potential side effects. Risk of bias was assessed with SYRCLE's RoB tool and Cochrane RoB 2.0. A control group was an inclusion criterion in outcome studies. In human outcome studies, randomisation was required. We excluded studies that co-administered other substances. We used the IB-de-risk tool for a translational integration of outcomes.
resultsWe synthesised data from 87 studies. For most observations (70.3%), CBD had no effect on anxiety outcomes. There was no identifiable relation between anxiety outcomes and drug levels across species. In all species (humans, mice, rats), anxiety-reducing effects seemed to be clustered in certain concentration ranges, which differed between species. DISCUSSION: A straightforward dosing recommendation was not possible, given variable concentration-effect relations across species, and no consistent linear effect of CBD on anxiety reduction. Currently, these results raise questions about the broad use as a drug for anxiety. Meta-analytic studies are needed to quantitatively investigate drug efficacy, including aspects of anxiety symptomatology. Acute and (sub)chronic dosing studies with integrated PK and PD outcomes are required for substantiated dose recommendations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.