CBD herbal teas, candies, cakes, and e-liquids for electronic cigarettes: consuming these cannabis-derived products during treatment can reduce the effectiveness or increase the side effects of many medications, health authorities warned Tuesday.
Sold since 2015 in various forms and consumed for its "real or supposed effects on people's well-being", CBD "is not a medicine", the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) reminds us in a press release.
This calls for vigilance, in view of 58 cases of interactions with drugs recorded by poison control centers between 2017 and 2023 and 4 serious cases - a number "undoubtedly significantly underestimated" - identified by the pharmacovigilance network in 2021/2022.
"If you experience side effects while taking CBD and medication, or if your treatment seems to work differently - more or less strongly, for example - since you started using CBD (...) contact your doctor or ask your pharmacist for advice," the agency recommends.
Interactions have been observed with 17 drug families, including analgesics, anticoagulants, antidiabetics, antibiotics, antifungals, antidepressants, antiepileptics, antipsychotics, hypnotics, benzodiazepines and methadone.
But CBD is likely to interact with other types of medications "not yet identified," the drug agency specifies.
The ANSM asks people undergoing medication and who use or plan to use products containing CBD, even those available over the counter, to inform their doctor, who will take this into account when prescribing.
If you experience "nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, headaches, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, or seizures" after consuming a product containing CBD, you should stop using it and consult your doctor.
These effects can occur regardless of the form of CBD consumed (candy, cakes, herbal teas, etc.), after a few hours or several months of consumption, and regardless of the frequency of the latter, specifies the ANSM.
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