Background: For millions of Americans suffering from clinically relevant alcohol use problems, evidence-based treatments can be difficult to access (Kranzler & Soyka, 2018); thus, novel therapeutics are necessary. Cannabidiol (CBD) presents broad therapeutic potential (Blessing et al., 2016). Data suggest that CBD has the potential to reduce problematic alcohol use (Viudez-Martinez, 2020); however, no work has examined the role of shame in this context. Shame is a complex emotion involving a negative evaluation of the self (Dearing et al., 2005) and is related to problematic alcohol use (Luoma et al., 2019). From a theoretical perspective, trait shame may be expected to attenuate the effects of CBD on alcohol-related problems. The current study aims to assess the effects of 300mg CBD versus placebo administered daily for 3 weeks on alcohol-related outcomes as a function of shame proneness. 

Methods: 34 participants (M_age = 24.43; SD_age = 6.26) who met criteria for hazardous drinking (along with a set of eligibility criteria ensuring participant safety and reducing scientific confounds) were randomly assigned to condition (300mg CBD or placebo) and instructed to self-administer the product daily for 3 weeks. The Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA; Tangney et al., 1989) was administered to assess trait shame at baseline, and the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire (ACQ; Singleton et al., 2014) was administered to assess alcohol cravings at three weeks. 

Results: Preliminary findings suggest that there were no main effects of condition (b = -0.23, t(30) = -0.16, p = .875, η² = 0.004) or trait shame (b = 0.005, t(30) = 0.16, p = .872, η² = 0.003) on alcohol craving. Additionally, there was no condition by trait shame interaction (b = 0.003, t(30) = 0.07, p = .943, η² = 0.0002) for alcohol craving. 

Conclusions: Given the small sample size of the current study, more work is needed to discern the effects of CBD on alcohol-related indicators.