Frequent queries from patients about the potential for cannabis oil to treat their seizures has prompted London neurologist Seyed Mirsattari to study its effectiveness.
The recent surge in anecdotal stories touting the potential therapeutic benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component in cannabis, is boosting interest in the drug, said Mirsattari, a professor at Western Universityâs Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.
But CBD-using individuals with epilepsy â a disease that affects one per cent of the population globally â take their doses differently and source it from various places, including the black market, Mirsattari said.
âSome of them smoke, some of them drink, some of them put it in cookies. Thereâs no consistency out there, but on the other hand, thereâs a huge amount of interest,â he said of CBD.
âSo, that was the incentive of why we need to formally study it.â
Mirsattari has teamed up with researchers at the University of Toronto to explore whether CBD, combined with a low dose of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the component of cannabis that produces the euphoric high, decreases the number of seizure in adults with drug-resistant epilepsy.
âOf the patients who have epilepsy, about one-third of them fail to respond to medications,â Mirsattari said.
Surgery is another option to treat seizures â the London Health Sciences Centre has one of only a handful of epilepsy surgery centres in Canada â but it doesnât work for everyone, Mirsattari said.
âSo, that leaves us with a larger group of patients with what we call unmet needs,â he said.
A group of 80 men and women â 40 receiving treatment, 40 assigned to a control group â are participating in the 18-week study. Participants will be given 330 mg dose with a 16-to-one CBD-to-THC ratio, in addition to their regular anti-epileptic drugs.
The cannabis oil will be administered twice daily in the form of softgel capsules supplied by MedReleaf, a subsidiary of Aurora, one of Canadaâs largest cannabis producers.
âThey are providing it at no cost to the trial,â Mirsattari said of the capsules.
Researchers will track the number of seizures participants experience, along with other symptoms such as depression, anxiety and sleep patterns. That data will be compared against a placebo group.
âItâs not just enough to say they had less seizures, you also want to know if they had a better quality of life,â Mirsattari said.
About epilepsy
Source: Epilepsy Foundation