A drug derived from marijuana may be the first of its kind to treat a rare form of epilepsy
The research found that higher doses of the experimental drug saw a drop of an average forty-two per cent in seizure occurrence
By Erin Brodwin
An experimental drug derived from cannabis to treat epilepsy is on the brink of becoming the first of its kind to win US government approval.
The drug is called Epidiolex, and its active ingredient is cannabidiol, the compound in marijuana thought to be responsible for many of its therapeutic effects.
Since cannabidiol doesn’t contain THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, it doesn’t get users high. But it does appear to help reduce seizures in one of the hardest-to-treat forms of epilepsy, known as Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome or LGS.
That’s according to new findings released this month from a large clinical study, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s yearly meeting in Boston. For the study, researchers looked at 225 young people with LGS. The participants were all having nearly 100 drop seizures each month and had already tried a handful of epilepsy drugs that failed to help. The subjects were split into groups and given a high dose of the cannabidiol, a lower dose, or a placebo for 14 weeks.
The participants given the higher dose saw their seizure occurrence drop by an average of 42 per cent; for about 40 per cent of those people, their seizure rate was cut in half. Those who took the lower dose also saw their seizure occurrence go down, but at a slightly lower percentage of 37 per cent. The participants on the placebo, on the other hand, only saw a 17 per cent reduction in their seizures.