UK Researches Found Whole-Plant Medicinal Cannabis Reduced Seizures In Children By 86%

In a new case series published in the journal BMJ Paediatrics Open, researchers found that the frequency of epileptic seizures fell by 86% within ten children using whole-plant medicinal cannabis.

These ten children did not respond to other treatments like using only cannabidiol (CBD) products that were specifically licensed for epilepsy. The researchers noted that substantial anecdotal evidence regarding the benefits of medicinal cannabis in treating childhood epilepsy has been growing since the 1800s.

However, there hasn’t been much research or evidence to prove the effectiveness of whole-plant cannabis extracts. Whole-plant medicinal cannabis refers to cannabis with THC, CBD, other neuroactive cannabinoids, and terpenes. The research series was conducted in the UK, where recreational and medical cannabis was deemed illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which explains the lack of research and evidence.

It wasn’t until 2018 that the United Kingdom legalized the prescription of medicinal whole-plant cannabis for severe childhood epilepsy. The reform resulted from countless parents whose children responded well to treatment with whole-plant medicinal cannabis instead of antiepileptic drugs and pure CBD extract.

Because there is still a massive lack of confirmed and reliable evidence from clinical trial data, doctors in the UK are still rather hesitant to prescribe whole-plant medicinal cannabis to a child with severe epilepsy.

Finally, some momentum began to spur as the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) began to accept real-world data like case series’ as valuable sources of evidence in cases that are difficult to confirm through clinical trials. An example of this is using whole-plant medicinal cannabis on children. NICE is in charge of providing guidance regarding which treatments and therapies England should carry out.

Because of this, researchers in the new case series began to evaluate how whole-plant medicinal cannabis could help ten children with severe epilepsy who didn’t respond well to conventional treatment. These children also didn’t respond to the medical-grade CBD oil (Epidyolex) explicitly licensed for their condition.

The children tried an average of 7 conventional epilepsy medications. When they began taking medical cannabis, the average fell to 1 medication per child, with seven children quitting all medications entirely. The researchers also found that the frequency of monthly seizures among the ten children reduced by 86%.

The researchers are still undergoing a complete chemical analysis of the whole-plant medicinal cannabis products they used in the case series. Still, they did mention the CBD and THC content. Each child took an average of 5.15 mg of THC and 171.8 mg of CBD every day.