Yahoo News Cannabis could help treat epilepsy in children
Cannabis could hold the key to treating epilepsy in children, according to new research.
The cannabis derivative cannabidiol was found to cut the frequency of seizures by 39 per cent for patients with Dravet syndrome - a rare, severe form of epilepsy - in the first large-scale clinical trial for the compound.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a compound in the cannabis plant that doesn't contain psychoactive properties that induce a high.
Lead investigator Professor Orrin Devinsky, of NYU Langone Medical Centre in the US, said: "Cannabidiol should not be viewed as a panacea for epilepsy, but for patients with especially severe forms who have not responded to numerous medications, these results provide hope that we may soon have another treatment option.
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"We still need more research, but this new trial provides more evidence than we have ever had of cannabidiol's effectiveness as a medication for treatment-resistant epilepsy."
The study included a liquid pharmaceutical formulation of CBD, called Epidiolex, which has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
For the study, 120 youngsters aged from two to 18 with Dravet Syndrome were randomised across 23 sites in the US and Europe to receive either CBD 20 mg/kg or a placebo added to their existing treatment over a 14-week period.
Seizure frequency was tracked for a month prior to the study, and during the course of the study.
Specifically, seizure frequency dropped in the CBD-treated group by 39 per cent from a median of nearly 12 convulsive seizures per month before the study to around six; three patients' seizures stopped entirely.
In the placebo group, there was a 13 per cent reduction in seizures from about 15 monthly seizures to 14.
The difference in the degree of seizure reduction between the CBD group and the placebo group was both statistically significant and clinically consistent, according to the researchers.
Side effects - experienced by 93.4 per cent of patients in the CBD group and 74.6 per cent of those treated with a placebo - were generally reported as mild or moderate in severity.
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The most common side effects in the CBD group were vomiting, fatigue and fever.
Eight participants from the CBD group withdrew from the trial due to side effects compared to one participant in the placebo group.
The new study confirms results from an earlier programme led by Prof Devinsky that reported reductions in seizure frequency.
In the earlier programme, both the researchers and patient's families knew they were receiving CBD, which the researchers say may have introduced a bias into the results.
But Prof Devinsky said the new, randomised, controlled clinical study eliminated those concerns as the participants and their doctors didn't know if they were on CBD or a placebo.
Now future research will look at whether safety and tolerability might be improved and whether the efficiency of CBD can be maintained at lower doses.
The findings were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
