Professor Terry O’Brien and his team have taken a slick approach to battling hard-to-treat epilepsy with a groundbreaking transdermal cannabidiol (CBD) gel.
Here’s the scoop: After 6 months of this skin-applied magic, over half the trial participants saw their seizures sliced by more than 50%!
Let’s rewind.
In 2018, the U.S. FDA gave a thumbs-up to a cannabidiol treatment for rare epilepsy syndromes affecting kids: Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet Syndrome. Fast-forward to 2024, and Australia’s TGA and PBAC joined the party, approving and subsidising the treatment for Dravet Syndrome patients under the PBS. But what about the big kids (a.k.a. adults) dealing with more common types of epilepsy? Enter this world-first study.
Professor O’Brien, the brain behind the trial and head of Monash University’s Department of Neuroscience, led a team across 14 trial centers in Australia and New Zealand. The trial targeted focal epilepsy, the most common form of epilepsy in adults, notorious for being treatment-resistant in one-third of cases. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study confirmed the CBD gel’s safety.
Here’s the twist: While the initial 12-week phase didn’t show a significant difference in seizure reduction between CBD gel and placebo, the 6-month open-label extension told a different story. Over 50% of the participants using the CBD gel experienced a jaw-dropping 50% or more reduction in seizure frequency.
“This is the first time anyone in the world has trialed a cannabidiol treatment in this group of adult patients with hard-to-treat focal epilepsy,” said Professor O’Brien. “Although the initial phase didn’t show clear effects, the longer trial gave us promising results. It’s a huge leap toward medicinal cannabis treatments for adults with common epilepsy.”
In short: It’s early days, but this CBD gel could be the start of a seismic shift in epilepsy treatment.
