“In recent years there has been a growing appreciation by regulatory authorities that cannabis-based medicines can play a useful role in disease therapy.
Although often conflagrated by proponents of recreational use, the legislative rescheduling of cannabis-derived compounds, such as cannabidiol (CBD), has been associated with the steady increase in the pursuit of use of medicinal cannabis.
One key driver in this interest has been the scientific demonstration of efficacy and safety of CBD in randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials in children and young adults with difficult-to-treat epilepsies, which has encouraged increasing numbers of human trials of CBD for other indications and in other populations.
The introduction of CBD as the medicine Epidiolex in the US (in 2018) and as Epidyolex in the EU (in 2019) as the first cannabis-derived therapeutic for the treatment for seizures was underpinned by preclinical research performed at the University of Reading.
This work was awarded the British Pharmacological Society Sir James Black Award for Contributions to Drug Discovery 2019 and is discussed in the following review article.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32986848/
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.15274
“Highly purified cannabidiol (CBD) has demonstrated efficacy with an acceptable safety profile in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome in randomized, double-blind, add-on, controlled phase 3 trials.
“Mutations in SYNGAP1 are associated with developmental delay, epilepsy, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Epilepsy is often drug-resistant in this syndrome with frequent drop attacks.
“Epilepsy contributes to approximately 1% of the global disease burden. By affecting especially young children as well as older persons of all social and racial variety, epilepsy is a present disorder worldwide. Currently, only 65% of epileptic patients can be successfully treated with antiepileptic drugs. For this reason, alternative medicine receives more attention.
“Cannabidiol (CBD) is a major phytocannabinoid in Cannabis sativa. CBD is being increasingly reported as a clinical treatment for neurological diseases.
“A significant number of epilepsy patients are refractory to conventional antiepileptic drugs. These patients experience considerable neurocognitive impairments that impact their quality of life and ability to function independently. This need for alternative treatment has generated increased interest in cannabis use as a therapeutic option in these patients.
“Resting-state (rs) network dysfunction is a contributing factor to treatment resistance in epilepsy. In treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE), pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies have been shown to improve such dysfunction.
“We observed that cannabidiol supplements were highly effective in treating an infant boy with drug-resistant early infantile epileptic encephalopathy, eliminating his intractable tonic seizures.
“The compounds present in cannabis have been in use for both recreational and medicinal purposes for many centuries. Changes in the legislation in South Africa have led to an increase in the number of people interested in using these compounds for self-medication. Many of them may approach their general practitioner as the first source of information about possible therapeutic effects. It is important that medical professionals are able to give patients the correct information. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the main compounds in cannabis plants, and there is evidence that it can successfully treat certain patients with epilepsy. This review looks at the most recent evidence on the use of CBD in the treatment of epilepsy and explores the mechanisms behind these beneficial effects.”
“Highly purified cannabidiol (CBD) (approved as Epidiolex® in the United States) has demonstrated efficacy with an acceptable safety profile in patients with Lennox-Gastaut or Dravet syndrome in four randomized controlled trials. CBD possesses affinity for many target classes with functional effects relevant to the pathophysiology of many disease types, including epilepsy.