A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms what many patients, parents, advocates, and physicians already know – CBD reduces seizures. According to a Forbes report outlining the study, researchers found that patients with Dravet syndrome receiving CBD treatment experienced half the median seizure rate of the baseline rates from 12.4 to 5.9. In the placebo group, 60 patients total, their rates remained almost unchanged from 14.9 to 14.1.
Forty-three percent of participants receiving the oral solution CBD treatments experienced 50 percent reduction in the frequency of convulsive seizures, while 27 percent of the patients in the placebo group experienced such a reduction. One in 20 patients in the CBD group were seizure-free over the 14-week trial but no patient in the placebo group was seizure-free.
Patients in the CBD group did experience side effects including fever, sleepiness, vomiting, and changes in liver enzymes and more in the group withdrew from the trial.
The trial was conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals who manufacturers Epidiolex – a seizure drug which has been fast-tracked by the FDA. However, the drug would only be available to patients when all other conventional treatments have failed. GW is publicly traded on Nasdaq under the GWPH symbol.