This is a feasibility study to test the effectiveness of cannabidiol (CBD) for alleviating cannabis withdrawal symptoms in a 6 night inpatient detoxification program.

Project Collaborators External

• Dr Nghi PhungWestern Sydney Local Health District
• Prof Martin WeltmanNepean Hospital

Project Supporters

NCPIC

To assess the effectiveness of CBD in reducing cannabis withdrawal symptoms.

Design and Method

This is a single subject repeated measures design, whereby one subject is assessed at baseline/time 1, given the intervention (CBD) and assessed again at time 2 (Day 3 of detox) and time 3 (day 7 of detox) and time 4 (28 days post admission follow-up) in addition to daily Cannabis Withdrawal Scale completion. This process is then repeated with 7 additional participants in order to replicate the findings. The intervention consists of 300mg of CBD on day 1, 300mg of CBD morning and night on days 2-5 and 300mg of CBD on day 6 for n=5 and 600mg BD for a further 3 participants. The aim of the assessment is to measure the safety and acceptability of the medication in reducing self-reported withdrawal symptoms.

Progress/Update

The study has been completed.

Benefits

These data provide support for funding submissions for a double blind randomised controlled trial.

Findings

The medication was found to be acceptable and free of adverse events even at the dose of 1200mg/day.

Presentation at national and international conferences. The findings are currently being prepared for peer reviewed journal publication.