Epileptic children treated with marijuana with high levels of THC had nearly 90% fewer seizures

By Tom Campbell via SWNS

Epileptic children treated with medicinal marijuana which includes the 'high' chemical suffered 86 percent fewer seizures, scientists have found.

Known as "whole-plant cannabis" the product contains tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, the active ingredient which gives people a high when it is used recreationally.

There are cannabis epilepsy treatments available but they have had the THC removed and appear to be far less effective.

Research into cannabis ground to a halt after it was made medically and recreationally illegal in the United Kingdom under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

But in 2018, cannabis became a prescription medicine for the treatment of severe childhood epilepsy after parents complained no other treatment was working.

Doctors have however been extremely reluctant to prescribe cannabis products, largely because of inconsistent clinical trial results.

Now, researchers at Imperial College London have found it could help treat epilepsy, a condition that affects around 60,000 children and young people under the age of 18 in the UK.

The study, carried out by Professor David Nutt, was published in the BMJ.

Prof Nutt said: "We believe that our data on whole-plant medical cannabis in childhood-onset severe treatment-resistant epilepsy, provides evidence to support its introduction into the NHS within current NICE prescribing guidelines.

“Such a move would be hugely beneficial to the families, who in addition to having the psychological distress of looking after their chronically ill children, have also to cover the crippling financial burden of their medication.”

Data was collected from the parents or carers of 10 children with severe epilepsy over the phone or video conference call between January and May 2021.

The participants, who were recruited through two charities advocating for medical cannabis treatments, suffered from a range of epilepsies and had not found a suitable treatment.

While two of the children tried the only pharmaceutical grade, purified cannabidiol (CBD) oil licensed for the condition in children, known as Epidyolex, which does not contain any THC, they continued having severe seizures.

Three of them also had other health issues, including infantile spasms, learning disabilities and developmental delay.

On average, the children had tried seven conventional epilepsy drugs to stop the seizures before giving whole cannabis products a try.

This dropped to just one medication type after starting their marijuana treatment, with seven of the children stopping all together.

Overall, the number of seizures they experienced on a monthly basis fell by 86 percent on average.

A full chemical analysis revealed the children were taking around 5.15 mg THC and 171.8 mg CBD every day.

The average cost of the treatment per month was £874, with one child getting it for free on the NHS, the researchers found.

Parents and carers reported seeing significant improvements in the children's health and wellbeing, including sleep, eating, behavior and cognition after they started taking the products.

Further research is needed, as this was only an observational study involving a small number of participants.

Also, it is possible that only parents for whom medical marijuana had worked wonders decided to take part in the study.

But their findings are in line with several observational and controlled interventional studies which found medicinal cannabis helps soothe seizures.

It also suggests taking the whole plant medicinal cannabis products may be better than CBD alternatives.

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which issues guidance on which treatments and therapies should be adopted by the British health services, has accepted case studies like the one carried out by the researchers, are a valid source of evidence, particularly when carrying out a clinical trial involves children and is difficult to carry out.

Prof Nutt said: "Further research is required to elucidate the mechanisms by which the respective additive constituents of whole-plant products lead to superior clinical results.

"And this must include comparing the unwanted effects of whole plant medicinal cannabis with the known harmful effects of conventional epilepsy medicines."