Long-term cannabis treatment reduces seizures

Alfred Brain director Professor Terry O'Brien said that after six months of using transdermal cannabidiol (CBD) gel, over half the patients experienced at least a 50 per cent reduction in seizures.

“The original 12-week trial of 188 patients did not reveal any difference between the experimental and placebo group, however when the trial was extended, more than half of the experimental group experienced a significant seizure reduction, making the treatment a promising candidate for larger and longer trials,” he said.

The trial also examined the safety of CBD gel in the form of skin patches on adults with focal epilepsy.

Previous research has shown that cannabidiol efficacy in specific syndromes that predominantly affect children is strong, however, high-level evidence for the efficacy and safety of cannabidiol in the most common form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults – focal epilepsy – was lacking

“Significantly, this is the first trial of its kind to use a cannabidiol in a common group of adult patients, whose seizures currently cannot be controlled with other available treatments,” Professor O’Brien said.

“The findings of this trial importantly show that this is safe, well tolerated and accepted by patients.

“Given this is the first trial of its kind, the findings are internationally significant and provide a solid starting point to build an evidence-base to support the availability and use of medicinal cannabis-based treatments for adults with common forms of epilepsy.”