Several studies, including a meta-study described on this site, have indicated that cannabidiol (CBD) is effective at treating cocaine use disorder. However, these studies have relied on animal modeling and have not involved human subjects. A more recent study published in this month’s Addiction found that CBD did not reduce cocaine craving or relapse among humans being treating for cocaine use disorder.
The research team behind the double-blind study was led by Didier Jutras-Aswad, a professor of psychiatry at Université de Montréal, and involved 78 individuals who had previously been diagnosed with cocaine use disorder. Following a ten-day “detox” period, the participants were sent home and received weekly check-ups over the course of the next 12 weeks. Forty members of the group received 800 mg per day of CBD and 38 received a placebo.
Drug-cue exposure resulted in similar craving scores among the placebo group and CBD group, with researchers recording a mean score of 3.21 and 4.69, respectively. Perhaps more telling, all but three of the study’s participants (2 within the CBD group and 1 within the placebo group) had relapsed to cocaine by the end of the 12-week observation period.
The full study can be found here.