Epilepsy, a disorder in the central nervous system, affects more than 150,000 Americans every year. It can cause abnormal brain activity, seizures, periods of unusual behavior and sensation, and loss of awareness. A recently published study showed CBD users diagnosed with epilepsy did not demonstrate significant changes in seizure frequency when compared with non-CBD users. That said, there was something positive that came out of the study. The researchers found that there was an improvement in quality of life among those diagnosed with epilepsy.
Study
The researchers used data from a patient registry and social media in order to find their subjects. They chose a group of 71 adults with epilepsy and 209 adult caregivers to children or dependent adults with epilepsy. This connection between these groups is the fact that they used artisanal, or traditionally made, CBD products for medicinal purposes. The researchers also studied a control group of 29 adults and 109 caregivers who didn’t use CBD.
Once they had the subjects prepared, the researchers gave them a web-based survey created to analyze different aspects of their lives, focusing on health-related topics. These included topics such as quality of life, sleep quality, pain, anxiety and depression, and healthcare utilization. The researchers also asked about the subjects’ frequency and extent of their CBD use. They also asked the subjects to report any adverse effects that they experienced while using CBD. Following this survey, the researchers offered them follow-up surveys every three months. Participants completed an average of 2.6 follow-ups over the course of the study.
Results
The researchers found that, upon completion of the study, the subjects reported improvements in various aspects of quality of life. Specifically, they reported improvements in anxiety, depression, and sleep. The researchers, while not finding differences in the epilepsy symptoms and seizure, state that these results are important. Dr. Nicolas Schlienz, director of research at Realm of Caring, stated “We saw improvements in quality of life among epilepsy users. We also saw improvements to anxiety and depression and sleep. While those variables may not be the focus of clinical trials very often, you still want to see those improvements among these among any patients. Because if you don’t have those, then you would have epilepsy or seizures affecting a lower quality of life, making that even more difficult for the patient” in response to the results.
The researchers also found that those that used artisanal CBD products took their epilepsy medications with fewer adverse side effects, used fewer prescriptions overall, and were less likely to use healthcare services.
Discussion
Later, other researchers examining the study stated that the results could change given different circumstances in the experiment. They specifically focused on introducing a more narrow inclusion criteria for the study. In other words, they claim that having a narrower focus on who is included as a subject will affect the outcome. On the other hand, another study found very different results, stating that there was an increase in the frequency of seizures for those using CBD and anti-epilepsy drugs. The reason behind this could be due to the lack of uniform testing across all brands. Specifically, artisanal CBD products are said to affect this problem quite differently from prescription CBD. However, because the different brands can differ in their makeup, they can have different effects as well.
One thing that all of the researchers can agree on is that further and more extensive research needs to be done in order to find out the validity of these claims.
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