Ever since the pandemic began, everyone’s stress levels have considerably increased. The healthcare sector is one that has been especially exposed to various stress factors, such as working too many long hours, the fear of getting infected, the lack of sleep etc.
Today we’re going to talk about how it was done and the conclusions reached regarding fighting stress in healthcare workers.
What is CBD?
CBD is one of the over 100 cannabinoids found in cannabis, as well as one of the principal cannabinoids found (found in large amounts). Although cannabidiol shot to fame due to its ability to treat Dravet symptom (an aggressive form of infantile epilepsy) there are many more qualities that can be attributed to these cannabinoids, including its anxiolytic effect.
This finding is considered incredibly important, as CBD is inherently safe and has almost non-existent side-effects compared to other anxiety medication such as benzodiazepine, for example.
CBD for Fighting Stress
The COVID-19 pandemic has had many negative consequences across many sectors, although the hardest battle has clearly been as the hospitals.
Frontline healthcare workers have been under constant levels of stress that have taken a toll on their physical and mental states. Due to this constant stress, many have reported changes such as depression, anxiety, weight loss, and general deterioration in health.
In order to determine if CBD is effective at relieving the previously mentioned effects, clinical trials were held by a group of investigators at the University of Sao Paolo.
The investigation, which was held between June and November of 2020, included 120 healthcare professionals which were working, at the time, at the University Hospital Medicine Faculty at Ribeirao Preto.
Chronic Stress Symptoms in Healthcare Personnel During the COVID Pandemic
Due to the amount of pressure hospitals have been under in many different countries around the world, professionals have been forced to work more than usual with a much higher level of stress than usual.
Nobody was prepared for the hard reality that the coronavirus brought upon the healthcare system. This is why it’s normal for doctors and nurses to have reported severe symptoms of chronic stress:
- Emotional drain
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Anguish
- Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
- Insomnia
According to the investigation team, in order to treat these symptoms pharmaceutical products such as benzodiazepines, anti-depression medication and hypnotic medication are used which, although they may take a while to produce any type of effect, they also have considerable secondary effects.
On the other hand, they state that CBD has a more immediate effect when treating these symptoms, and it also is much safer. The secondary effects produced by cannabidiol that have been reported up until now are slight or non-existent.
CBD and Stress: How did the Trials Work?
In order to do this trial, 120 individuals who were working at the hospital during the covid health emergency.
The group was divided into two, and 61 individuals were given 300 milligrams of CBD a day orally, as well as other stress-relief methods such as motivational videos; the second group (59 people) only had access to the audio-visual material.
All of them were monitored for stress levels without the researchers who were receiving the data knowing which group was taking CBD and which wasn’t. This allowed them to measure the possible differences in stress reactions between both groups objectively.
It’s important to note that 67% of the participants were women, with an average age of 34. Some studies state that woman suffer more from illnesses derived from stress such as depression and chronic anxiety disorders.
Does CBD Work for Treating Stress
According to investigators, the results revealed that the members of the group who received CBD alongside the other material (videos etc) were more capable of dealing with stress than the group that didn’t receive any cannabinoids.
A decrease in anxiety, tiredness and depression symptoms was noted four weeks after the start of the treatment.
The trial leaders also state that these results prove that CBD can be used as medication to fight emotional drainage in extreme situations, and it can be a useful tool for frontline health workers.
Possible CBD Side-effects
Although this study provided hopeful results, researchers also warn that 5 of the people in the CBD group that received daily doses suffered from side-effects: four of them had increased hepatic enzymes, and one of them suffered from pharmacodermia (skin and mucosal affliction).
While it’s true that all of them recovered swiftly after interrupting the treatment, researchers point out the need to investigate these interactions and side-effects produced by CBD in certain cases.
It seems hat more and more scientific studies and trials are being done to prove the efficacy and safety of CBD and other cannabinoids. However, it doesn’t get the same attention as other conventional treatments or medications that, ironically, have a lower safety profile.
Either way, it seems that we’re slowly going in the correct direction, and standardized cannabinoid treatments are becoming more of a reality, or at least we hope they are.
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