USA study questions link between OCD and cannabis

A study conducted by Carrie Cuttler and her team at Washington State University has found that smoking cannabis can reduce the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD is a mental health condition where sufferers are harassed by intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and repetitive behaviours. While the condition is traditionally treated with either serotonin reuptake inhibitors (antidepressants) or exposure and response prevention therapy, these treatments don’t work for every patient.

However, cannabis and its calming-effects may be able to provide OCD sufferers with short term relief.

According to the study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, participants with OCD experienced a reduction of 60% in their compulsions, 49% in their intrusive thoughts, and 52% in their anxiety.

The effects of the cannabis also depended on the dose and concentration of CBD. The more cannabis a person consumed, the larger the reduction in OCD symptoms.

The study looked at 87 participants over a period of 31 months. Participants self-identified themselves as having OCD, and logged their spliff smoking sessions in the app ‘Strainprint’. Over 1,800 sessions were recorded and included in WSU’s study.

Over time, Cuttler had expected the effectiveness of cannabis to decrease as participants build up a tolerance to the drug. Instead, Cutler’s team found that cannabis continued to be effective in reducing OCD compulsions. Cuttler was quoted as saying: 

The results overall indicate that cannabis may have some beneficial short-term but not really long-term effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The WSU study is only the second study into cannabis as a treatment for OCD. The first study was a clinical trial of 12 people conducted earlier this year. While it also found cannabis helped with OCD, a placebo drug had the same effect. 

Researchers have warned that the WSU study is only a first-look into OCD and cannabis, as is it possible participants started to expect that cannabis would improve their symptoms. Participants also sourced their own cannabis, so the percentage of CBD and THC consumed in each session is unknown. 

To really understand cannabis as a treatment option for OCD, Cuttler believes clinical trials are needed. She and her colleagues have also published research on cannabis and emotional wellbeing, PTSD and headache pain.

You can read about their research into headache pain here.