CBD is famous as a medication for treating people with epilepsy, and a lot of research happens in the area. Claiming that CBD can be the ultimate cure for epilepsy is not right as it lacks scientific evidence. But the fact that FDA has approved the use of a hemp CBD drug Epidolex in controlling epilepsy seizures looks promising.
What is CBD?
The plants of the cannabis family contain about 113 cannabinoids and CBD is one among them. Plants like hemp and marijuana are members of the cannabis family but they differ greatly in terms of the constituent compounds.
The CBD products derived from hemp has high concentration of cannabidiol while the percentage of the intoxicating cannabinoid THC is kept below 0.3%. Marijuana CBD products contain high amount of THC, which is why they are not legal in the US. The CBD products that you get in the market are derived from the hemp plant.
Studies Supporting the Use of CBD For Epilepsy
Studies of Epidolex
Epidolex is an FDA approved drug that is used to reduce the frequency of seizures in epilepsy patients. Positive results of several studies conducted in the US to investigate the effectiveness of the drug finally led to its approval by the FDA.
Epidolex is a purified CBD extract derived from the hemp plant. Clinical trials were conducted on control groups, where some people took a placebo and some took different doses of CBD. The researchers did not know who belonged to the placebo group and CBD group. Clinical studies of this nature are called gold standard studies.
Results from a Gold Standard Study Published In New England Journal
- At 30 clinical centers, randomized gold standard studies were done.
- 225 people were divided into 3 groups
- 20 mg CBD group-76 people were enrolled to this group
- 10 mg CBD group-73 people were enrolled to this group
- Placebo group-76 people were enrolled to this group
- For 14 weeks, people were given CBD dosages twice a day.
- During the 28-day test period, the seizure frequency dropped in 85 people.
- The percentages of seizure drop in the 3 groups are
- 9% -20mg CBD group
- 2%-10 mg CBD group
- 2%-placebo group
The study indicated that CBD was more effective than placebo in reducing seizures, boosting the confidence of people thinking about trying CBD oil for seizures.