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Cautious welcome for new cannabis research
Epilepsy Society has treated with caution research that a component of cannabis could offer a potential new therapy for the treatment of epilepsy.
Professor Ley Sander, medical director at Epilepsy Society said: “This is an interesting piece of research but needs further investigation. It relates to cannabidivarin- a natural compound found in cannabis which is not psychoactive. However, the dangers of smoking cannabis should not be underestimated. Although some people say cannabis has helped their epilepsy in others it has caused seizures.”
Scientists at the University of Reading have demonstrated for the first time that a previously unstudied chemical in cannabis could lead to more effective treatments for people with epilepsy.
The team at the University’s Department of Pharmacy and School of Psychology have discovered that cannabidivarin (CBDV) – a largely ignored natural compound found in cannabis – has the potential to prevent more seizures, with few side effects such as uncontrollable shaking, caused by many existing anti-epileptic drugs.
In the study, carried out by the University of Reading in collaboration with GW Pharma and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, cannabidivarin strongly suppressed seizures in six different experimental models commonly used in epilepsy drug discovery.
The findings are reported in the British Journal of Pharmacology journal.
