Cannabidiol Effects on Learning and Anxiety

April 23, 2026 updated by: Robert Astur, University of Connecticut
To examine the extent to which Cannabidiol (CBD) enhances fear conditioning extinction in college undergraduates who show elevated social anxiety. Undergraduates who display elevated social anxiety on standard assessments will be recruited at the University of Connecticut. All participants will be put in a standard fear conditioning paradigm where they are conditioned to fear a face that occasionally is followed by a shock to their wrist. The other face never is paired with a shock. After everybody learns this, half of the participants will receive 600 mg CBD Isolate Gel Capsules one time, and the other half will receive a placebo dose. Participants will then be presented with the faces with no shocks, and the rate and duration of extinction as measured by electrodermal response as well as subjective fear ratings via a visual analogue scale will be examined. It is hypothesized that participants that receive CBD will display enhanced extinction compared to the placebo group, as evidenced by reduced electrodermal response and reduced visual analogue fear ratings.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

160

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • Storrs, Connecticut, United States, 06269-1020
        • Recruiting
        • University of Connecticut
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 50 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 18-50 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Difficulties seeing a computer screen
  2. Anyone currently taking CBD within the last 24 hours.
  3. Anyone using any cannabis product within the last 24 hours.
  4. Heart problems or heart disease
  5. A neurological disorder such as epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, tumor, vascular malformations, aneurysm
  6. Are currently pregnant or breast-feeding

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Cannabidiol
600 mg Cannabidiol Isolate Gel Capsules / participant. One-time dose.
Drug: Cannabidiol Oral Product
Participants will receive a one-time dose of 600 mg Cannabidiol Isolate Gel Capsules in the form of six 100mg capsules.
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Same number of placebo capsules / participant. One-time dose.
Other: Placebo
Participants will receive a one-time dose of placebo capsules in the form of six capsules.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Electrodermal activity
Time Frame: 20 minutes
Electrodermal response as measured by galvanic skin response electrodes that are attached to two of the fingers via sticker electrodes. These passively measure the conductance of the sweat glands on the fingers.
20 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Connecticut

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 30, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 23, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 7, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 17, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 29, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 23, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H21-0159

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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