Marijuana in Liquid Form May Decrease Severe Epilepsy in Children

A liquid form of marijuana may be a huge step forward for children with severe epilepsy. Scientists have found that the new treatment could help children with the condition who aren't responding to other treatments.

In this latest study, the researchers focused on 213 people, ranging from toddlers to adults, with a median age of 11 who had severe epilepsy and did not respond to other treatments. The volunteers had Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, epilepsy types that can lead to intellectual disability and lifelong seizures, as well as 10 other types of severe epilepsy.

The researchers gave the volunteers the drug, cannabidiol, which is a component of marijuana that doesn't include the psychoactive part of the plant. The drug is a liquid taken daily by mouth, and all volunteers knew they were receiving the drug in the study, which was designed to determine whether the drug was safe and tolerated well.

The scientists measured the number of seizures the participants had while taking the drug. For the 137 people who completed that 12-week study, the number of seizures decreased by about 54 percent. Among the 23 people with Dravet syndrome, the number of convulsive seizures went down by 53 percent.

A total of 12 people stopped taking the drug due to side effects, which included drowsiness, diarrhea, tiredness and decreased appetite.

"So far there have been few formal studies on this marijuana extract," said Orrin Devinsky, one of the researchers, in a news release. "These results are of great interest, especially for the children and their parents who have been searching for an answer for these debilitating seizures."

The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 67^th Annual Meeting.

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