Approximately 30% of patients with drug-resistant forms of epilepsy, including Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Dravet syndrome (DS), and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), may have resistance to standard medications. In such cases, high-purified-cannabidiol (CBD) known as Epidiolex (by GW Pharma) is sometimes prescribed. Currently, there is limited research data on the efficacy and safety of CBD in various forms.
Researchers from Aix-Marseille University in France treated 73 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy using high-purity CBD as an additional therapy. Among these, 51 had febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (Group A), and 22 had focal or multifocal seizures (Group B).
Of the patients, 15 (29.4%) in Group A and 5 (22.7%) in Group B responded during the follow-up period. The most common side effect found was drowsiness. Toward the end of the follow-up, 15 patients in Group A (29.4%) and nine patients in Group B (40.1%) discontinued high-purity CBD treatment due to worsening seizures with no positive effects or undesirable events. The authors note that their study did not find significant differences related to the type of drug-resistant epilepsy and suggest that this treatment may be of interest for all types of drug-resistant epilepsy.
