SynthesisPharmaceutical medicine2022
The Effectiveness and Safety of Cannabidiol in Non-seizure-related Indications: A Systematic Review of Published Randomized Clinical Trials.
Synthesis in Pharmaceutical medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cannabinoid exposure across substance use disorders: Short-term symptom benefits without sustained therapeutic gains in a tier-weighted systematic review.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- Cannabidiol at the crossroads: panacea, placebo, or problem?Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Traditional Chinese medicine on epilepsy: focus on N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors.Medical review (2021) · 2025Review
- Emerging medications and pharmacological treatment approaches for substance use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2025Review
- Cannabidiol in Foods and Food Supplements: Evaluation of Health Risks and Health Claims.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Full-spectrum cannabis extracts for women with chronic pain syndromes: a real-life retrospective report of multi-symptomatic benefits after treatment with individually tailored dosage schemes.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Review of the current ongoing clinical trials exploring the possible anti-anxiety effects of cannabidiol.Journal of cannabis research · 2024Review
- Cannabidiol as a Harm Reduction Strategy for People Who Use Drugs: A Rapid Review.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Review
- Cannabidiol: potential in treatment of neurological diseases, flax as a possible natural source of cannabidiol.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Long-Term, Self-Dosing CBD Users: Indications, Dosage, and Self-Perceptions on General Health/Symptoms and Drug Use.Medical cannabis and cannabinoidsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLegislative changes have fueled the global availability of cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds, such as cannabidiol. Little is known about the effectiveness and safety of cannabidiol for treating health conditions other than seizure disorders.
objectiveA systematic review of the literature was performed to investigate other health conditions, characteristics of the studied populations, and the effectiveness of cannabidiol in randomized clinical trials.
methodsSeven publication databases were searched from February to March 2021. The inclusion criteria for studies were: (1) utilized a randomized clinical trial design; (2) published in a peer-reviewed journal or thesis/dissertation; (3) published in English; (4) investigated either prescription (i.e., Epidiolex) or non-prescription CBD that was derived from the Cannabis sativa plant with < 3% ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol; and (5) reported at least one outcome. This review excluded seizure-related disorders as several previous reviews have been done on this topic; it also excluded published protocols, other systematic reviews, or meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials that investigated cannabidiol. Independent reviewing, risk of bias assessment, and data abstraction were performed by two authors.
resultsFifty-eight studies from eight countries were included in this review. Twenty-seven studies (47%) were conducted in healthy populations, 14% were restricted to male individuals (n = 8), and 72% had sample sizes of fewer than 40 participants. Doses of cannabidiol used in these studies ranged from 400 µg to 6000 mg. The effect of cannabidiol on mental health was the most studied topic (53%), which focused mainly on anxiety, psychosis, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders. The remaining studies investigated neurological conditions (19%) and a myriad of other health conditions or outcomes. While cannabidiol appears to be anxiolytic, its effectiveness for other conditions was highly variable.
conclusionsThis review highlights the inconsistencies of cannabidiol as a treatment for non-seizure-related health conditions or outcomes. Studies incorporating larger sample sizes in more diverse populations are encouraged. While cannabidiol was generally safe and well tolerated even in high doses among the included studies, clearer dosing guidelines and increased regulation of cannabidiol products are also needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.