The use of cannabidiol in addiction therapy in the light of clinical trials.

Abstract

Addiction is a chronic recurrent disorder characterized by substance abuse and withdrawal syndrome with "hunger." Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, is used to treat neurological conditions, including substance or behavioral addiction (behavioral addiction). This analysis focuses on evaluating the results of available clinical trials, assessing the potential of CBD pharmacotherapy for drug addiction, smoking, cannabis and alcohol use disorders. Clinical trials registered in the clinicaltrials.gov database and the resources of the Pubmed database were analyzed in search of those published in 2010–2020. The review was conducted in July and August 2020. The search terms were for CBD and addiction. The studies sought include randomized controlled and crossover (RCT) studies, open label clinical trials and case studies. 9 articles were identified for review: 6 small RCTs, 2 case studies and 1 open-label clinical study including: 5 studies on CBD in cannabis use disorders (including 63 patients in total; 25 women and 38 men), 2 studies on CBD use for treatment of addiction to smoking (54 patients; 26 women and 28 men), 1 study of CBD in the treatment of heroin dependence (9 patients; 9 men) and 1 study of CBD in drug addiction treatment (38 patients; 19 women and 19 men). Cannabidiol may be a therapeutic option for treating addiction. It is active not only as a substitute, but also supports the treatment of other addictions. Good tolerance and neuroprotective effect determine its high therapeutic potential. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Keywords

• clinical research
• cbd
• addiction treatment
• cannabidiol
• substance withdrawal syndrome