The University of Saskatchewan has been conducting research on kids with epilepsy, using controlled amounts of medicinal cannabis oil, with the results being positive.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, say preliminary results suggest medical cannabis oil can reduce or completely stop seizures in children experiencing severe and drug-resistant epilepsy.
Details of the study
The study, funded by Jim Pattison’s Children’s Hospital Foundation, monitored seven children with severe paediatric epilepsy, a debilitating condition that can cause children to suffer as many as 1,200 seizures a month.
Dr. Richard Huntsman, a paediatric neurologist at the university’s college of medicine and one of the study’s authors, said the results are nascent but encouraging. The overall reduction in seizures was close to 75% on average.
During the study, the children were administered their typical medication in addition to the cannabis. No participant was administered a placebo.
After one month of observing their seizures, the children received increasing doses of a herbal cannabis extract. The dosage was then increased each month for six months.
Huntsman explained: “Some people might say that’s not perfect, that’s not 100%, but you have to take into consideration these are kids that have failed multiple anti-seizure medications, multiple treatments. The likelihood of getting a good result with another medication is really, really low.”
Three of the seven children stopped having seizures altogether during the study.
The use of cannabis oil and barriers
A major barrier to the study was the notion that the cannabis-based medicine would make the children intoxicated.
But the actual medication consisted of 95% cannabidiol (CBD) and 5% THC. CBD is derived from cannabis plants but does not create a high, whereas THC can be intoxicating.
“What we were able to show is that the THC levels, even at the highest doses in this study, remained low,” Huntsman said.
“Based on this —and, again, this [is] preliminary data for seven patients of study so we have got to keep that in mind — but what we’re able to show so far is that the concerns about THC intoxication, maybe it’s not as much of a concern.”
According to Huntsman, part of the study attempted to outline a framework on how to administer cannabis-based medicine, as there was no evidence-based dosage guideline
That’s great! I’ve read some studies that the results were a lot (well, not so big difference, but clearly noticeable) better with full spectrum than only CBD isolate. THC & CBD definitely work better combined, but other cannabinoids like CBN, CBDV, etc. also help with epilepsy.