No control group, no placebo, not blinded, not double-blinded, small sample size. The only possible real takeaway from a study like this is that it appears to

No control group, no placebo, not blinded, not double-blinded, small sample size. The only possible real takeaway from a study like this is that it appears to support undertaking a larger, more expensive & more robust study on in determining whether CBD may have benefits in treating anxiety and insomnia. Seeing a candidate treatment at such an incredibly embryonic stage being voted to the top spot of hacker news, to me, suggests our HN audience has significant room for improvement in ascertaining the quality or implications of published scientific studies. EDIT: In particular, a risk here is that readers here might feel encouraged to try smoking cannabis for self-treatment of anxiety or insomnia, which is quite a different thing than taking CBD itself. Specifically, recreational cannabis is intentionally grown to have a high THC content, and THC can and does have negative consequences for those people suffering from anxiety.