Cannabis and anxiety survey

[Matt77]

Hi everyone!
My name is Matt and I am a psychology student at the University of New England (Australia). I am currently doing a study investigating the relationship between cannabis use and anxiety for my Honours degree in psychology. At the moment I am looking for participants to complete an online survey. The survey is completely anonymous, and takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.

For those who are interested I have included some information about my study below. You can access the online survey from this link: Survey | Qualtrics Survey Software (http://unebcss.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_0DrbYgUDN2MWj2Y&SVID=)

Thanks for your time.
Matt

Study investigation: The relationship between cannabis use and anxiety

What effect does cannabis use have on anxiety? Although cannabis users frequently report higher levels of anxiety than non users, the nature of the association between cannabis use and anxiety is not well understood. While clinical studies have shown that cannabis can induce symptoms of anxiety in high doses, current research also suggests that cannabis may help relieve stress and tension. Accordingly, recent studies have shown that individuals who experience symptoms of anxiety often report very different effects of use. While some individuals report feeling anxious while intoxicated, others report using cannabis to relieve symptoms of anxiety.

A number of theories have been proposed to explain the high rates of anxiety among cannabis users, including genetic vulnerability, pattern and history of use, potency of cannabis used and the presence of preexisting anxiety disorders. However, due to the contradictory findings of previous research, scientists are still uncertain about the effect that cannabis use has on anxiety. While cannabis appears to induce anxiety in certain individuals, it also appears to help other people relax.

The objective of this study is to explore the differences between users who report cannabis induced anxiety, and those who report using it to relieve symptoms of anxiety. It is hoped that the information you provide will help improve our understanding of the relationship between cannabis use and anxiety. This information will be useful for identifying people who may be more vulnerable to adverse outcomes of use, and help in the development of evidenced-based harm minimisation strategies. Thank you for your time.

[zeitgeist]

completed:thumbsup:

[Matt77]

Thank you for participating Zeitgeist, I really appreciate your help :)
cheers,
Matt

[G13budsmoker]

i took your survey, interested on what you think of the matter

[Matt77]

Hi Budsmoker, thanks for taking the survey. What would you like to know?

[G13budsmoker]

just wonder what you expect to find out of the survey? if some it helps relax and relieve symptoms and some it only makes it worse. it doesnt ask if you have had different effects from different strains, which i found to play a huge part on anxiety. indicas relieve my symptoms, but if i smoke "to much" sativa my anxiety can come back, so i only smoke a few puff of sativa to keep from making it worse.

[BlueBlazer]

Good point. It could have been a little more specific in places.

[Matt77]

Hi budsmoker,
Thanks for your comments. Your point about sativa and indica strains is a good one, and something I didn't know much about until I started posting on these online forums. From all of the comments I have read it does appear that sativa induces anxiety more often than indica. However, in all of the research that I have done, not one scientific study has even mentioned indica....it is all sativa. This is something I would lke to rectify when I do my PhD. It appears that the academics have no idea about the effects of different strains.

So, what do I hope to find out? Well at the moment most of the research has been focused on the THC/CBD ratio. As you probably know high conentrations of THC have been shown to produce anxiety in clinical trials, whereas high concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD) appear to produce a calming effect in users. This is why I have asked questions about what parts of the plant you smoke (as bud/heads have a higher THC to CBD ratio than leaf).

I have also asked a range of questions such as your motivation for use, when you first started smoking it, how much you smoke and how often you smoke it, your levels of intoxication, the environment that you smoke it in, the effect it has on you, family history of anxiety and depression and your current levels of anxiety and depression. All of these variables will eventually be analysed where I will be looking for patterns and relationships between variables.
At the moment very little is actually known about the relationship between cannabis use and anxiety. The fact that cannabis can induce anxiety in some users, and reduce symptoms in others, seems to have placed this type of research in the 'too hard' basket. Hopefully the information gathered in my survey will eventually help generate more research, and in turn help to provide a better understanding of the effects of cannabis.
Cheers,
Matt

[kodiak]

smokers dont get anxiety when they smoke only when they run out or get off it:thumbsup:

[Matt77]

Thanks for those profound words Kodiak :)

[JohnnyZ]

However, in all of the research that I have done, not one scientific study has even mentioned indica....it is all sativa. This is something I would lke to rectify when I do my PhD. It appears that the academics have no idea about the effects of different strains.

I am not surprised to see that "Reefer Madness" is still hanging around academia. They find one strain that induces anxiety and all of a sudden..

I don't like living in a dishonest world where you need to check who funds these studies.

This is not a rip on you Matt77, you are just a kid. But you should educate yourself on the history of cannabis and exactly how it has been demonized.

[Matt77]

I'm 33, and I have done my research - have you?

[Matt77]

Hi everyone,
I am just about finished collecting my data for my study. At the moment I have 233 completed surveys but I still need 46 more participants, and I really need them by the end of this week. If I don't reach my quota I can still write my thesis but my results will not be scientifically credible. So this is a last call for participants.

If you haven't already participated in my study could you please, please consider helping me out (pretty please with sugar on top...or maybe a nice hairy bud). The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and is relatively painless..lol

The survey can be accessed from this link:
Survey | Qualtrics Survey Software (http://unebcss.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_0DrbYgUDN2MWj2Y&SVID=)
cheers,
Matt :)

[Barney Trouble]

Done. It takes about 10 minutes, unless you're stoned...


so ya, 20 minutes :jointsmile:

[Matt77]

Thanks for participating BarneyT, I really appreciate your help!