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WEDNESDAY, May 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) — The addition of cannabidiol to conventional antiepileptic medication is associated with a reduction in the frequency of drop seizures among patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, according to a study published in the May 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Orrin Devinsky, M.D., from the New York University Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in New York City, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial involving children and adults (aged 2 to 55 years) with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome who had had two or more drop seizures per week during a 28-day baseline period. Patients were randomized to cannabidiol oral solution at a dose of 20 mg\/kg (76 patients) or 10 mg\/kg of body weight (73 patients) or matching placebo (76 patients).<\/p>\n
The researchers found that in all trial groups combined, the median number of drop seizures was 85 during the 28-day baseline period. The median percent reduction from baseline in drop-seizure frequency was 41.9, 37.2, and 17.2 percent in the 20-mg and 10-mg cannabidiol groups and in the placebo group, respectively. Somnolence, decreased appetite, and diarrhea were the most common adverse events among patients in the cannabidiol groups; these events occurred more often in the higher-dose group. Nine percent of those receiving cannabidiol had elevated liver aminotransferase concentrations.<\/p>\n
“The addition of cannabidiol at a dose of 10 mg or 20 mg per kilogram per day to a conventional antiepileptic regimen resulted in greater reductions in the frequency of drop seizures than placebo,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
The study was funded by GW Pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
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