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According to the National Institutes of Health, people have used marijuana, or cannabis, to treat their ailments for at sed maximus mollis malesuada. Sed suscipit, tortor nec sollicitudin tincidunt, massa ipsum vestibulum dui, ut mattis nisl nibh sit amet nibh. Etiam malesuada neque vel elit auctor hendrerit. Suspendisse ultricies rutrum faucibus.

In the past years, cannabidiol (CBD), one amongst hundreds of naturally occurring phytocannabinoids found in the Cannabis sativa plant, has received a lot of attention from scientific communities, politicians, and mainstream media channels. CBD is the second most abundant cannabinoid in the Cannabis sativa plant after delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but unlike THC, CBD is not intoxicating (Pertwee 2008). In many countries, including the UK, there is unsanctioned availability of products containing CBD, from oils and capsules to chewing gums, mints, soft drinks, gummies, and intimate lubrication gels.

CBD has not demonstrated any potential for abuse or dependency and is considered well tolerated with a good safety profile, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Geneva CANNABIDIOL (CBD) n.d.). Since January 2019, the European Union (EU) has classified CBD as a novel food, implying that before 1997, consumption was insignificant. Each country has implemented the regulation of CBD differently. In the UK, The Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends limiting the daily dose of CBD to 70 mg (Cannabidiol (CBD) n.d.). However, researchers have used doses up to 1200 mg without serious side-effects (Davies and Bhattacharyya 2019). Conversely, few clinical trials involving children with treatment-resistant epilepsy who received either 10 or 20 mg/kg of CBD (Epidiolex) for 12 weeks recorded side-effects, such as a reversible rise in liver enzymes (Devinsky et al. 2018a; Thiele et al. 2018).

The popularity of CBD can be partly explained by an increasing number of preclinical and clinical studies indicating a range of potential health benefits. However, mass media interest also plays a significant role. Studies suggest CBD might help with mental health symptoms and neurological conditions like experimentally induced anxiety (Zuardi et al. 1993), generalised social anxiety disorder (Bergamaschi et al. 2011), social phobia (de Faria et al. 2020), and conditions like PTSD (Elms et al. 2019; Shannon and Opila-Lehman 2016) schizophrenia (Zuardi et al. 2006; Leweke et al. 2012; Morgan and Curran 2008; Schubart et al. 2011), addiction (Hurd et al. 2019; Hindocha et al. 2018; Galaj et al. 2020), and epilepsy (Devinsky et al. 2017; Devinsky et al. 2018b; Cunha et al. 1980). These mental health disorders are often co-morbid and include other symptoms CBD might help with, e.g. sleep and impaired cognition. There is also data to suggest CBD could help treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (Watt and Karl 2017; Fernández-Ruiz et al. 2013; Esposito et al. 2006), Parkinson’s disease (Fernández-Ruiz et al. 2013; García-Arencibia et al. 2007), and chronic pain conditions including fibromyalgia (Van De Donk et al. 2019), either alone or with THC (Rog et al. 2005; Berman et al. 2004; Wade et al. 2003; Svendsen et al. 2004; Notcutt et al. 2004). Additionally, in more than 30 countries, health authorities have approved CBD, under the name Epidiolex, to treat two severe forms of treatment-resistant childhood epilepsy (Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) (Devinsky et al. 2016; Silvestro et al. 2019). Sativex, a sublingual spray containing an equal amount of THC and CBD, is also approved to treat multiple sclerosis in more than 30 countries (Keating 2017).

When used in high doses, somnolence is a primary adverse effect (Machado Bergamaschi et al. 2011). Patients in CBD clinical trials were more likely to experience sedation (OR 4.21, 95% CI 1.18–15.01) and somnolence (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.07–4.64) in comparison to placebo (Chesney et al. 2020). Despite this preclinical and experimental research, there is a lack of human clinical trials to establish the efficacy and appropriate CBD indications fully. The effective dose for most of the above indications is still to be determined. In much of the research, high doses of CBD are used (between 300 and 1200 mg), whilst at the same time, globally, millions of CBD users are using low dose CBD. Thus, a disconnect exists between clinical research and the current state of the market.

A cross-sectional study of 2409 cannabidiol users from the USA found that the top three medical conditions reported were chronic pain, arthritis/joint pain, and anxiety, followed by depression and insomnia (Corroon and Phillips 2018). A recent survey carried out by Wheeler et al. of 340 young adults, some of whom were CBD users, found the top reasons to be stress relief, relaxation, and sleep improvement. They found edible CBD products to be the most prevalent (Wheeler et al. 2020). Another study of 400 CBD patients in New Zealand observed an increase in overall quality of life, a decrease in perceived pain, depression, and anxiety symptoms, as well as an increase in appetite and better sleep (Gulbransen et al. 2020).

A national survey indicated that in the UK, 8–11% of the adult population had tried CBD by June 2019 (Andrew et al. 2019). Studies of Google searches have shown considerable increases in CBD interest, with 6.4 million unique searchers in the USA in April 2019 (Leas et al. 2019). Yet it is clear that scientists, physicians, and governments were not prepared for the rapid surge in CBD use.

The regulatory confusion, along with recent media hype, has made it hard for most people to understand the true nature of CBD. Being classified as both a medicine and a supplement in some forms, whilst an illegal substance in others leads to consumer and patient confusion and potential frustration. Therefore, this study aimed to understand users’ consumption patterns regarding dose, route of administration, and reasons for using CBD. We hypothesised that out of all reasons for using CBD, the top three would be anxiety, sleep disturbances, and stress.

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