Study Finds That CBD Use in Cystic Fibrosis Patients is Common, but Clinicians are Unprepared

A recent two-part study¹ investigated the prevalence of cannabidiol (CBD) use in patients with cystic fibrosis. This is important because the variability or lack of electronic medical record (EMR) documentation as well as the reluctance of patients to disclose CBD use may prevent clinicians from identifying potential drug interactions or risks of treatment failure. In the two-part study, a retrospective audit was performed on EMR and researchers performed a prospective survey of patients with cystic fibrosis attending scheduled appointments in the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.

Out of 373 patients, EMR showed that 14.2% of patients reported previous cannabis or marijuana use and 15% of patients reported current cannabis use or marijuana use. The terms “cannabis” and “marijuana” were used to search the EMRs because “CBD” was not a recognized term in the EMR. The prospective study was administered to 96 patients. Of these patients, 11.5% said they were current CBD users (across all routes of consumption including oral, inhalation, and/or topical), 20.8% said they had used it in the past, 21.9% said they never used CBD but were interested, and 44.8% said they never used and did not plant to use CBD.

When it came to why patients used CBD, 33 patients self-reported their reasons. These reasons included sleep, anxiety, and pain, which were reported by 33%, 30%, and 30% of these patients, respectively. They also reported recreation, mood, appetite, and general health advantages as other reasons.

While 54% of patients reported use, past use, or interest in future use, a survey of 282 cystic fibrosis clinicians showed that 72% were under-prepared to answer questions regarding use of CBD by cystic fibrosis patients. “The expansion of cannabidiol use by [patients with cystic fibrosis] combined with the lack of evidence on its use in this population, potential drug-drug interactions, and drug-disease interactions leave clinicians unprepared to provide advice on cannabidiol use to their patients,” the authors write. “It is important for clinicians to ask about CBD and for researchers to continue to study potential DDIs with CBD.”

References

1. Tillman, E.M.; Gallaway, K.A.; Colwell, A.; Sakon, C.; Brown, C.D. Prevalence of cannabidiol use in persons with cystic fibrosis. Pediatric Pulmonology. 2024, Article ASAP. DOI: 10.1002/ppul.27244