Summary: A new study considers the medical benefits of using marijuana to help treat epilepsy which can not be controlled with standard anticonvulsants.
Source: Wiley.
A new British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology review examines the potential of medicinal cannabis–or medical marijuana–for helping patients with intractable epilepsy, in which seizures fail to come under control with standard anticonvulsant treatment.
The authors note that cannabidiol–the most researched compound of cannabis–may have modest efficacy and be appropriate for children with severe epilepsy, but attention must be paid to potential side effects and drug interactions. There is no evidence to guide physicians in ranking cannabidiol among current antiepileptic drugs, and it will be important to continue studying its potential through rigorous clinical trials.
“The emergence over the past 12 months of the first successful double-blind randomized controlled trials of cannabidiol is good news for some desperate families of children with severe epilepsy. These studies are a reminder though that this drug is no miracle, and we still have much to learn,” said co-author Dr. John Anthony Lawson, of Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, in Australia.
Source: Penny Smith – Wiley
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Therapeutic Use of medicinal cannabis in difficult to manage epilepsy” by John A. Lawson and Ingrid E. Scheffer in British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Published August 7 2018.
doi:10.1111/bcp.13711
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Wiley”Can Medical Marijuana Help Treat Intractable Epilepsy?.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 8 August 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/marijuana-intractable-epilepsy-9670/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Wiley(2018, August 8). Can Medical Marijuana Help Treat Intractable Epilepsy?. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved August 8, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/marijuana-intractable-epilepsy-9670/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Wiley”Can Medical Marijuana Help Treat Intractable Epilepsy?.” https://neurosciencenews.com/marijuana-intractable-epilepsy-9670/ (accessed August 8, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
