Vaporized cannabis containing both THC and cannabidiol (CBD) produces less anxiety than THC alone, but this effect depends on a person's baseline anxiety level. In a placebo-controlled trial with 26 healthy recreational cannabis users, THC-dominant cannabis (13.75 mg THC) and THC/CBD-equivalent cannabis (13.75 mg each) both increased self-rated state anxiety compared to placebo, though the combination caused significantly less anxiety than THC alone. When baseline anxiety was low, CBD completely counteracted THC-induced anxiety; when baseline anxiety was high, CBD did not counteract it. Trait anxiety did not influence the results, and objective measures of attention bias showed no effects.
After a psilocybin truffle retreat, two different psychotherapy interventions—one focused on self-perspective taking and cognitive defusion (ACT-SPT) and another on reexperiencing the psychedelic memory network (ACT-PMNR)—produced different trajectories of change. ACT-PMNR continued to improve participants' anxiety, well-being, and life functioning during the post-psilocybin period, whereas ACT-SPT trajectories drifted back toward baseline. Long-term follow-up of ACT-PMNR showed significant improvements across all measured outcomes, with post-therapy changes exceeding those from the retreat alone. Targeted post-psilocybin psychotherapy may build on initial retreat results, but randomized studies are needed to confirm these findings.
A single 15 μg dose of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) did not significantly alter pain perception in healthy volunteers compared to placebo in a randomized controlled trial. The study used a double-blind design to test whether a microdose of LSD would produce analgesic effects, but found no meaningful difference between the LSD and placebo conditions on measures of pain tolerance or threshold.