Cannabis extract may offer new option to treat epilepsy

♦cannabis may 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 the psychoactive properties that induce a high.

Lead investigator Prof 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.”

The study included a liquid pharmaceutical form of CBD, called Epidiolex, which has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

In a study of 120 children the difference in the degree of seizure reduction between a CBD group and a placebo group – 39 per cent to 13 per cent – was both statistically significant and clinically consistent, according to researchers.

The findings were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.