New Drug Gives Insight On CBD Use For Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a horrible disease of the central nervous system.  Electrical signals in the brain misfire. The misfiring of these signals result in communication problems between cells. This ultimately results in a seizure. In over half of epilepsy cases, there is no known malfunction in any other area of the brain. Often the disease comes from the genetic history. However, there are other causes.  These include malformation of the brain during development, brain tumors, trauma, and other factors that can play a role.

The most common form of treatment is pharmaceuticals. these often make the sufferer drowsy and no longer like “themselves.” This can interfere in their learning ability and motivation to participate in activities. More patients are turning to natural solutions because of this. CBD use for epilepsy seems to be the most promising. Before we get into the facts, let us first go over what exactly CBD is.

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol, or, CBD, is a major non-psychotomimetic compound of the Cannabis Sativa plant. It provides many benefits similar to that of Cannabis, but contains no THC. Therefore, it is completely legal in all 50 states. CBD carries neuroprotective and neurogenic effects. It also displays anxiolytic, or relaxing, effects in humans and animals. It is currently used to treat many mental and autoimmune disorders. Likewise, the current use as an anti-cancer drug is shown to be extremely promising in many federal funded research studies. However, the most thought-provoking research has been done on CBD use for epilepsy.

Research

Although CBD is available easily in the United States, a CBD drug was released in the United Kingdom. This led to a study, which can be read about more here, and gave way to much information about how CBD can be used for epilepsy. There were 27 patients involved in the 12-week study. The ages of the patients were between 10 to 26 years old. All patients had aggressive and multiple seizures a day that medication had little effect on.

Although their treatment before was of little use, they incorporated their old treatment with the CBD treatment. Every patient was kept track of and had to report their results every week.

By the end of the 12-weeks, 33% of the patients were seizure-free. Something they had never experienced before. In almost all cases, the patient had a 50% decrease in seizure frequency by the end of the study. Due to these shocking results, all patients wanted to remain on the CBD treatment.