Cannabidiol (CBD) secured approval to treat two rare seizure disorders - Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes - after clinical trials demonstrated reduced seizure frequencies. However, both conditions cause other disabling symptoms also demanding relief. Now, an insightful survey of 500+ caregivers of people with these syndromes confirms CBD may improve multiple areas beyond seizures alone.
CBD Receives Landmark Approval for Two Severe Epilepsy Forms
Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes constitute ultra-rare congenital epilepsy types resistant to medications and marked by relentless seizures, developmental delays, movement disorders, and frequent premature mortality.
After considerable research, pharmaceutical CBD gained approval during 2018 to specifically treat seizures accompanying both syndromes. This milestone verdict followed decisive clinical trials where added CBD cut monthly seizure rates by half for many patients not helped by prior therapies.
Yet day-to-day existence with Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes involves much more than seizures alone - hence why assessing CBD’s complete symptom relief potential mattered next.
Survey Examines CBD’s Impact on Cognition, Behavior, Physical Function
Seeking real-world data on CBD’s effects beyond seizure activity, scientists surveyed 500+ caregivers of people receiving pharmaceutical CBD for Dravet or Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes over 3 months.
Researchers assessed CBD’s influence across non-seizure areas frequently impaired in both syndromes, including:
- Cognition
- Behavior
- Communication
- Sleep
- Motor function
After CBD treatment concluded, over 85% of caregivers reported improvements in one or more domains like alertness, language, sleep quality, and emotional regulation. Among respondents, 93% planned to continue using CBD going forward.
While unable strictly to confirm CBD directly and independently caused all improvements through a survey, results closely match other reports demonstrating CBD stabilizes mood, aids sleep, and potentially sharpens focus in other treatment contexts like anxiety.
How May CBD Alleviate This Spectrum of Epilepsy Symptoms?
When explaining CBD’s versatile yet significant epileptic benefits seen here, experts suggest two primary mechanisms likely contribute:
1. Direct Anti-Seizure Effects
Research confirms CBD directly suppresses overactive neuronal firing and electrical discharges underlying seizures through multiple biological pathways within the brain.
By directly tackling seizure activity this way, reducing a patient’s overall seizure burden then prevents cumulative neurological damage over time that eventually manifests through deteriorating cognition, motor function, and behavioral regulation.
2. Secondary Neuroprotective Properties
Separately, CBD exhibits neuroprotective qualities able to salvage already vulnerable neuronal structures and connections in the brain. For instance, CBD rescues damaged neurons, facilitates new brain cell formation, and shields brain cells from toxicity and inflammation.
Experts posit such neuronal nourishment and defense likely supports various brain functions like healthy cognition, movement, sleep, and emotional processing indirectly downstream.
In summary, CBD may alleviate epilepsy both directly by blocking seizures and secondarily by nurturing neuronal integrity enabling proper neurologic function overall.
Promise Extends Across Neurologic, Psychiatric Conditions
While this study specifically concerns rare epileptic encephalopathies, experts note similarly positive neurologic and psychiatric effects from supplemental CBD now consistently emerge across unrelated conditions too.
For example, research finds adding CBD may also benefit patients with autism, dementia, anxiety, and chronic pain through comparable brain and nervous system support pathways.
As uptake grows globally, CBD’s brain-boosting versatility positions this compound as an immensely useful supplement for neurological and mental health disorders of all kinds - either alone or enhancing other therapies.
CBD: A Smart Addition, Not Substitute, for Epilepsy Treatment
However, experts emphasize CBD constitutes an adjunctive treatment optimizing traditional medications and therapies rather than a wholesale substitute or cure-all alone.
They caution CBD remains relatively understudied in children, with most data from adult patients at this stage. Also, CBD risks interacting with certain anti-seizure or psychiatric medications, necessitating professional guidance tailoring supplementary dosing.
While invariably promising for two historically hard-to-treat epilepsy types so far, incorporating CBD into comprehensive treatment plans with continued follow-up and monitoring serves patients best right now.
As future research further illuminates CBD’s complete therapeutic scope in epilepsy and beyond, this versatile natural compound solidifies its position combating brain and nervous system disorders safely and effectively.
