special subjects
Cannabidiol (CBD)
Evidence
Oral CBD has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of seizures associated with two epileptic encephalopathies: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. These epileptic encephalopathies start in childhood and involve frequent seizures along with severe impairments in cognitive development. Two clinical studies have reported on the effectiveness of CBD in these patients and other patients with treatment-resistant epilepsies ( References ). However, not enough research has been done on cannabinoids for other, more common forms of epilepsy to determine if they are helpful for these conditions. A 2018 Cochrane systematic review on cannabis‐based medicines for chronic neuropathic pain in adults included 16 studies with 1750 participants ( References ). The analysis showed that cannabis‐based medications may increase the number of people achieving 50% or greater pain relief compared with placebo (21% versus 17%). Cannabis-based medications probably increase the number of people achieving pain relief of 30% or greater compared with placebo (39% versus 33%). The authors concluded that this small improvement in neuropathic pain might be outweighed by the potential harms. There are numerous clinical studies regarding the uses of CBD for various symptoms and disorders summarized on theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) website. 