CBD may not ease Covid-19 symptoms in short-term – study

A daily dose of CBD does not help patients in recovery from Covid-19 according to a new study published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

The study on Covid recovery examined the efficacy of CBD in patients experiencing mild to moderate symptoms. The team of researchers gave the group of 91 patients 300mg of CBD or a placebo for 14 days alongside their standard care.

The patients were recruited in an emergency room in Brazil.

Results

The researchers noted that while it was safe to give the patients the dose of CBD, it did not show any changes within the first 28 days of follow up. In particular, it did not change the patient’s viral load, anxiety or depression or help with any of the Covid symptoms they were experiencing.

They also noted that further trials of CBD and Covid-19 were needed. The same research team are also conducting a separate trial examining if CBD could act as a preventative agent for chronic long Covid.

Further studies needed

The authors wrote: “Daily administration of 300mg CBD for 14 days to patients with a recent diagnosis of Covid-19 with mild or moderate severity was safe but did not alter the clinical evolution in the first 28 days of follow-up.”

Specifically, authors reported no differences in subjects’ viral load, levels of anxiety or depression, or in the “complete resolution of typical Covid-19 symptoms.”

They added: “Further trials with patients with different severity levels of Covid-19 and CBD doses are necessary to confirm the absence of effects of CBD in the clinical course of Covid-19 observed in our study.”

COVID and cannabis

Previous studies suggested that cannabis may help with Covid because of its potential as an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial agent.

A study from early 2021 revealed that some cannabis strains could potentially help to reduce a type of inflammatory distress referred to as a ‘cytokine storm’. The cytokine storm can precede acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), often leading to death. This type of inflammatory distress can precede severe cases of acute respiratory distress caused by Covid-19.

The researchers used artificial skin which was exposed to UV rays in order to induce inflammation before being treated by seven strains of cannabis. The study reported that cannabis may potentially reduce the severity of Covid-19 by curbing inflammation, preventing fibrosis before leading to disease remission.