Substance Use Disorder, or SUD, is a treatable mental disorder affecting the brain and behavior of individuals, leading to an inability to control their use of substances such as drugs or alcohol.
While sources vary on exact numbers, it appears that from 20 – 40 million people in the USA alone are affected by substance use disorder. Though alcohol takes the top spot for affecting the most people, it is followed by prescription drugs, tobacco, cannabis, and stimulants.
What Are Stimulants?
To generalize, stimulants are any drug, lab derived or plant based, that cause an increase in central nervous system activity. This ranges from prescription drugs, such as those for ADHD to those extracted from plants like cocaine. They can be used for treatment, for performance enhancing purposes, or recreationally. Signs of substance abuse also run the gamut from increased energy, hyperfocus, flight of ideas, racing thoughts, delusions, drug seeking behavior, loss of appetite, and delusions. This is only a partial list and a person need not exhibit all of these to have substance use disorder.
Stimulant use can lead individuals to a dependence on the feelings of increased energy and confidence that lead to difficulty cutting them out of their daily routine. The lows that come after a stimulant high often lead people to cravings that are difficult to control. At the time of this article there are no FDA approved medications for treating stimulant use disorder. This is where many researchers are hoping CBD may come into play.
In What Ways Does CBD Have The Potential To Help?
One study found that CBD had a positive influence on reducing symptoms of craving and withdrawal in methamphetamine users. It also appeared to reduce incidence of relapse in animal studies. The authors hypothesized that through CBDs interference with the drug reward paradigm in the brain, and that through multiple mechanisms also modulates brain dopamine associated with meth use. This gives it quite a strong potential use case as an additional resource for those attempting to cease their use or dependence on stimulants.
While its efficacy in this case was focused on methamphetamine, it’s not certain how it would affect those using other stimulants. However, CBD’s potential ability to reduce anxiety, and the aforementioned potential to modulate dopamine response to stimulants suggest it could be worth exploring, even if the stimulant in question was as innocuous as caffeine (for clarity, caffeine is not included as a stimulant with potential for abuse in the diagnostic and statistical manual definition).
At present, there isn’t enough information for a conclusive answer to the question of CBD’s effectiveness against stimulant abuse, but there is encouraging preliminary research, and it could prove helpful. As always, consult with a physician or healthcare provider before you add CBD into your routine, especially if you are on any current prescriptions, or if you are currently in treatment of any kind.
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