University graduate students are helping to develop new treatments that helps cannabis users who have developed social anxiety and wish to find another outlet, instead of drugs, to combat their disorder.
Julia Buckner, assistant professor of psychology and director of the University’s Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Clinic, has assembled a team of graduate students to help her research the connection between marijuana use and social anxiety.
Buckner received a $235,000 research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has published close to 70 papers concerning cannabis use and social anxiety.
The NIDA recently published Buckner’s research collected over a 10-year study. Her research found that those with social anxiety disorder were seven times more likely to develop a cannabis use disorder (CUD), Buckner said.
She also concluded that those with higher levels of anxiety after completing CUD treatment are more prone to relapsing. Buckner explained that people are often being treated for their addiction but not their anxiety, which is the root of the problem.
In light of these findings, the graduate students under Buckner’s guidance are trying to develop ways of treating both issues at the same time through cognitive reconstruction and without issuing drugs.
“So far the results are promising … though the study is in the pilot phase,” Buckner said. “They’re telling us they like getting treated for both [anxiety and cannabis use] at the same time.”
In order to be successful in treatment, the underlying issue must first be discovered because the type of anxiety can affect the treatment, Buckner said. For example, those with social anxiety usually had anxiety prior to using cannabis, and the drug heightened it; however, those who suffer from panic anxiety probably created the issue by starting to use it, she said.
Buckner said these problems are consistent with college students. Students tend to experiment with cannabis when they are under a lot of stress or they feel the need to conform, she said. According to Buckner, students sometimes overestimate the number of students using drugs and therefore feel pressured.
The Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Clinic provides outpatient services while facilitating a place to conduct free treatment for research, Buckner said.