Cannabidiol exposures in the United States, National Poison Data System, July 2014–June 2021

Abstract

Introduction

There has been an increase in the interest and availability of products asserting to contain cannabidiol (CBD).

Objective

To describe demographic and clinical patterns in cases involving CBD exposures documented by the America’s Poison Centers (AAPCC).

Methods

We extracted human exposure cases involving CBD from the U.S. National Poison Data System between July 2014 and June 2021. We described monthly case counts and data on demographics, exposure reason, clinical effects, medical outcomes, and co-exposures, overall and by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval status.

Results

We identified 6,496 cases, of these, 85.2% involved exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. The monthly number of cases peaked at 336 in March 2021. Cases often occurred in children ages 2–12 years (36.2%). Although in this age group unintentional exposures represented most cases (94.1%), we identified therapeutic errors (3.9%), intentional use (3.0%), and adverse reactions (1.6%) in cases involving exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. Among the 5,248 (80.8%) cases involving exposure to a single product, we identified 44 major medical outcomes, all related to exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. The most frequent clinical effects included neurological, cardiac, and gastrointestinal effects. Among the 1,248 (19.2%) involving exposure to more than one product, the most frequent co-exposures included stimulants and street drugs, sedatives-hypnotics, antipsychotics, and analgesics.

Conclusions

This case series identified an increasing trend in CBD exposure cases managed by AAPCC. It showed serious medical outcomes in temporal association with exposure to non-FDA approved CBD products. Our findings also suggest both unintentional and intentional use of non-FDA approved CBD in children. Consumers should keep these products out of reach of children and exercise caution when purchasing and using non-FDA approved CBD products.

Keywords:

• Cannabidiol
• CBD
• poison control center
• National Poison Data System
• cannabis
• cannabis-derived products

Acknowledgments

The authors thank their FDA colleagues, Dr. Rose Radin for valuable suggestions on NPDS analyses and Drs. Ellen Pinnow, Sukhminder K Sandhu, Cindy Kortepeter, and Cassandra Taylor for insightful review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).