TUESDAY, April 8, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- A non-intoxicating extract of cannabis appears to help children and teenagers with autism, a new study says.

Cannabidiol (CBD) enhanced social responsiveness, reduced disruptive behavior and alleviated anxiety among kids with autism, researchers reported today at the European Congress of Psychiatry in Madrid.

“The global population prevalence of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis amongst children and adolescents is growing, but many treatment pathways are not effective,” lead researcher Dr. Lara Branco, a psychiatrist at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said in a news release.

“It is promising to see the effect of CBD cannabis extract on the study participants,” she continued.

For the study, researchers pooled data from three previous clinical trials looking into the use of CBD extracts to treat 276 children with autism. Their average age was 10-1/2 years old.

Cannabidiol is the second most prevalent active ingredient in marijuana, according to Harvard Medical School.

Unlike THC, CBD does not cause intoxication, but researchers believe it can produce health benefits by acting upon cannabinoid receptors throughout the brain and body.

The new results show that CBD does indeed appear to have a calming effect on children with autism, helping them become more responsive to others and less anxious.

CBD also appeared to improve kids’ sleep quality, although those results were not statistically significant.

“ASD can be extremely frustrating for all involved; parents of children and adolescents with the disorder, the treating clinicians, and of course the children and adolescents themselves,” European Psychiatric Association President Dr. Geert Dom said in a news release.

“A large part of this frustration is down to finding a viable treatment option that works to reduce symptoms,” added Dom, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. “It is with delight that we see the results of this meta-analysis and we hope to see further research into this so we can move towards a solution to the unmet need within this community."

Branco, however, emphasized that more research into CBD is needed before it can be considered as a treatment for autism.

“There still needs to be considerable focus on further research with larger trials to clarify its efficacy and safety in managing ASD,” she said.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The World Health Organization has more on autism.

SOURCE: European Psychiatric Association, news release, April 8, 2025