Efficacy of cannabinoids in pharmacoresistant epilepsy: A narrative review of the literature

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects approximately 1% of the world’s pop7u-lation. About one third of those patients suffer from treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE8), defined as failure to stop seizures despite adequate trials of at least two medications at therapeutic dosa-ges. There has been a growing interest in the development of novel antiepileptic drugs with diffe-rent mechanisms of action. This narrative review, based on 42 references retrieved from Scopus and Medline, discusses the scientific data from human and animal studies regarding the efficacy of cannabis-based treatment for epilepsy. Benefits have been described in pre-clinical and cli-nical studies in children, but ongoing research will clarify the real role of cannabinoids in TRE.

Keywords

• cannabis
• drug resistant epilepsy
• review