ArticleJournal of cannabis research2025
Placebo effects in a RCT assessing 30 days of low dose Cannabidiol (CBD) treatment for psychological distress in stressed students at risk for depression.
Article in Journal of cannabis research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Medical Potential of Cannabidiol in Mental and Neurological Disorders.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Cannabidiol in Neurology: Current Insights and Translational Perspectives.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Psychometric validation and predictive efficacy of a comprehensive depression risk model for undergraduates.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCannabidiol (CBD) has been suggested to have a therapeutic role for certain mental health conditions despite a lack of empirical evidence (Khan et al. 2020; Bonaccorso et al. 2019; Kirkland et al. 2022). The aim of the RCT (DRKS00030971) was to assess the effect of a daily sublingual application of a low dose over-the-counter 10% full spectrum CBD-oil over 30 days, compared to a placebo-oil and a no-treatment control group without application of any oil on perceived stress and psychological distress in a sample of stressed students. Another goal was to assess the role of treatment expectation on the potential placebo effect.
methodsA sample of 180 highly stressed university students at risk of depression were randomized to a one-month intervention with CBD-oil or placebo-oil or a no-treatment control group. All participants received the same information about CBD. Participants took the respective oil for 30 consecutive days. Measures of psychological distress were administered 3 times (before, after intervention, 4 weeks follow-up).
resultsAfter 30 days of intervention, groups differed significantly in decrease of stress, depressive symptoms, and somatization, but not regarding other outcomes of psychological distress (anxiety, sleep quality, increase of wellbeing). Participants in the CBD and placebo group benefitted significantly more compared to the no-treatment control group. No significant difference in any outcome was shown between the CBD-oil and the placebo-oil group. Interestingly, treatment expectation was not correlated with the decrease of symptoms in the placebo group, but with a direct rating of treatment effects at post-treatment.
conclusionsWhile we could not find a differential efficacy of CBD treatment on perceived stress and psychological distress, the results of the study suggest a substantial placebo response in low dose CBD treatment. Explicit treatment expectation as an underlying mechanism seems to play a minor role in explaining this placebo effect, but was correlated with the a posteriori subjective rating of treatment effects at post-treatment.
trial registrationPre-registered on 22/12/2022 at DRKS-ID: DRKS00030971.
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What Socratic holds
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.