Can Medicinal Marijuana Help Autism And Epilepsy In Children?

As we see greater legalization of marijuana for medicinal use across the US, researchers have been trying to identify more uses for marijuana and much focus has been drawn to autism and epilepsy in children. One of marijuana’s related products – hemp oil – has also been studied.

Marijuana and Hemp are members of the Cannabis family of compounds. Hemp is a little different as it contains only a trace of active compounds such as THC, but a large amount of CBD. THC is associated with the psychoactive high that marijuana is known for. CBD on the other hand has no psychoactive effect on the brain.

Recent research has focused on using THC as a viable treatment option for epilepsy in children. This has resulted in an increase in hemp oil sales. Whether the two can be linked is another thing altogether.

There are many steps required for a chemical or drug to become officially regulated by the relevant authorities for use in treatment in hospitals for example. The process starts off with a series of animal tests that give a basis or indication of how the drug may work on humans. If the results are positive, tests will be extended to look at animal testing in adult, junior and pregnant animals. Then, if results again appear positive, human trials begin. It is vitally important for the researchers to gain a sound understanding of the efficacy and safety of the drug, therefore there are very strict conditions each drug needs to attain before it is released for general use.

So where in this process are we with marijuana being used as an officially regulated treatment option? Well, as of mid-2016, there are almost four hundred studies listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, which gives a good indication of the level of research being undertaken in the field. Unfortunately, it appears none of these studies are looking at the effects of marijuana on epilepsy and autism in children. Despite this, there have been many reports in the media recently which suggests that children are using marijuana to manage their epilepsy – and with positive results – with many seeing a vast reduction in the number of seizures that they experience.

Researchers have tried to increase the level of understanding with epilepsy and autism. They focused on 19 subjects who used or were using CBD rich marijuana to help treat their child’s epilepsy. Of the 19, sixteen of the subjects reported a vastly reduced number of seizures experienced which in itself is very encouraging. This reflects and supports various animal studies that have been carried out which showed anticonvulsant effects in mice.

So, should we go ahead treating autism with cannabis, aswell as epilepsy?

At the moment, since it is unregulated, we don’t know of the long term effects of using these products on the child’s future health. This is an experimental treatment route, so you must proceed with caution.