Cannabidiol Reduces Nicotine Withdrawal Severity and State Anxiety During an Acute E-cigarette Abstinence Period: A Novel, Open-Label Study.

Abstract

Introduction: Despite efforts to curb nicotine use, 8.1 million adults in the United States use e-cigarettes. Notably, the majority of nicotine-containing e-cigarette users report wanting to quit in the near future, yet there is a dearth of research surrounding intervention efforts. Cannabidiol (CBD) has potential to facilitate e-cigarette quit attempts by decreasing withdrawal symptom intensity and anxiety during nicotine e-cigarette abstinence. Methods: This study employed an open-label, crossover design (n=20) to test the hypothesis that among daily nicotine-containing e-cigarette users, oral administration of 320 mg CBD would reduce self-reported nicotine withdrawal severity and state anxiety following a 4-h e-cigarette abstinence period compared to withdrawal and anxiety reported after abstinence in the absence of CBD. Results: After controlling for participants' positive CBD expectancies, results were consistent with hypotheses, suggesting CBD reduced both nicotine withdrawal symptom severity and state anxiety during e-cigarette abstinence. Conclusion: These preliminary findings suggest testing the impact of CBD on e-cigarette cessation attempts is warranted.