Cannabis derivative cannabidiol reduces seizures in severe epilepsy disorder

Orrin Devinsky, MD, director of NYU Langone's Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, is principal investigator of the cannabidiol for drug-resistant seizures in Dravet Syndrome trial. Credit: NYU Langone

After years of anecdotal claims about its benefits, the cannabis derivative cannabidiol reduced seizure frequency by 39 percent for patients with Dravet syndrome - a rare, severe form of epilepsy - in the first large-scale randomized clinical trial for the compound. The findings were published online May 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Cannabidiol should not be viewed as a panacea for epilepsy, but for patients with especially severe forms who have not responded to numerous medications, these results provide hope that we may soon have another treatment option," says lead investigator Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry and director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center. "We still need more research, but this new trial provides more evidence than we have ever had of cannabidiol's effectiveness as a medication for treatment-resistant epilepsy."

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a compound in the cannabis plant that does not contain psychoactive properties that induce a high. The study included a liquid pharmaceutical formulation of CBD, called Epidiolex, which is manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals and has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. GW Pharmaceuticals funded the clinical trial.

For the study, 120 children and adolescents with Dravet Syndrome between the ages of 2 and 18 years were randomized across 23 sites in the United States and Europe to receive either CBD 20 mg/kg or placebo added to their existing treatment over a 14-week period. Seizure frequency was tracked for one month prior to the study for baseline readings, and during the course of the study.

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