An anti-anxiety drug has become one of the most dangerous prescription medications in the UK as doctors try to tackle the ongoing fallout from the Covid lockdowns. It’s estimated that around 8 million Britons are living with some anxiety disorder since the Covid pandemic.
The death rate from Pregabalin—marketed as Lyrica—increased a hundred-fold in the UK in 2022 compared to its fatality levels in 2011, and its death toll has accelerated faster than any other drug. It has been linked to 3,400 deaths in the UK in the last five years.
Although it is being prescribed to counter anxiety, Lyrica was developed as an epilepsy therapy to control convulsions—but doctors say they have nothing else to offer people who have been suffering from depression and anxiety since the recent Covid lockdowns.
But doctors are wrong: there are effective antidotes to anxiety that don’t have any of the dangerous risks of prescription medication. One is CBD, the non-intoxicating element of cannabis, and a new study on a group of 300 people suffering from anxiety has discovered that it eases symptoms within a month.
It’s just as effective as THC, cannabis’s more addictive compound, say researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder. They tested CBD or THC on the participants, who were free to use the products as much and as frequently as they wanted. On average, they used the products three times a week.
Those who were taking CBD reported a quicker reduction in their anxiety and felt less tense almost immediately. They also reported fewer paranoid episodes than were being seen in those taking THC, although these reactions didn’t last.
Although both had anti-inflammatory qualities, CBD’s was more potent and was more likely to counter inflammation in the brain and nervous system that could be contributing to anxiety and depression.
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