3 Oct 2019

Cannabis gel helping decrease seizures among epileptic children

From Morning Report, 8:43 am on 3 October 2019

Clinical trials of a cannabis-based gel by Otago University researchers have shown a dramatic decrease in seizures among epileptic children in New Zealand and Australia.

After five months of using the gel, nearly two-thirds of the children in the trial had their number of seizures reduce by at least half. The trial involved 24 children in Wellington and another 24 in Melbourne.

At fifth month of the trial, 63 percent of children had a reduction of seizures by at least 50 percent.

Wellington paediatric neurologist Lynette Sadlier, one of the two lead researchers, told Morning Report's Corin Dann they are really excited by the initial results.

Cannabis oinment product.

Photo: 123RF

Prof Sadlier says parents on the trial reported improved alertness, awareness and energy, as well as fewer and less intense seizures.

“It’s always good to have another type of medication you can use to treat these children who have very difficult managed epilepsy,” she says.

“Some of these kids have seizures that go on for five, 10, 20 and 30 minutes, and after a long seizure like that these kids … can’t really function [well through the day].

“The gel not only helped decrease the number of seizures, but it also made their seizures shorter, so that they could get back to normal faster, and get to school and be able to participate in a normal life much better.”

The drug, if it passes through further trials, will be the first non-oral anti-seizure medication for children, she says.

"It can be difficult for children with disabilities to take drugs by mouth, but there is presently no other way to give these children anti-seizure medicines. This gel will be the first anti-seizure medicine that will not have to be given by mouth."

However, as with many other medications, prof Sadlier says CBD products probably don’t work on all types of epilepsies but what their trial has shown is that children with severe types do tend to get good benefits.

On the other hand, she says the results are similar to that of other anti-epileptic medications on the market.

“There’s previous trials on an oral pharmaceutical grade CBD product which looks at specific types of severe epilepsy, Dravet and Lennox Gastaut, and that’s … available in the United States.

“But this trial was looking at a wider group of children with severe epilepsies, and that’s also [showing] that CBD probably doesn’t just work for those two [types of severe epilepsies] but works for a wider group of the bad of epilepsies in childhood.”

They’ll be seeking a meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration to discuss further trials they’ll need to undertake before the product is approved.