What Is the Evidence for CBD Oil?

Besides treating seizures, is there any evidence for giving kids CBD oil or CBD kids gummies?

Are you wondering if your kids should be taking CBD oil?

That’s probably not a question you would be thinking of asking just a few years ago, but now that CBD products are everywhere, with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, and claims that it can treat everything from seizures and anxiety to cancer, you might be thinking you need to jump on this new fad.

What Is CBD Oil?

Many folks are likely skeptical when they hear about all of the benefits of CBD oil.

This is the stuff that is extracted from marijuana plants, right?

How is it even legal to sell CBD oil or gummies infused with CBD?

To understand that, you have to understand that cannabidiol (CBD) oil is the part of the marijuana plant that doesn’t get you high. That comes from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

And many of the products you see with CBD oil that is sold over-the-counter aren’t even derived from marijuana, but instead come from hemp plants.

Labeling something as hemp doesn’t necessarily make it legal though. Regulators in Ohio, for example, recently announced that CBD oil derived from hemp is illegal and that the only legal CBD oil will be dispensed in state-licensed dispensaries.

What Is the Evidence for CBD Oil?

There is definitely evidence that CBD oil can have beneficial effects in some medical conditions.

Except for treating some types of resistant seizures, there is no good evidence that CBD oil has all of these other benefits.
Except for treating some types of resistant seizures, there is no good evidence that CBD oil has all of these other benefits.

In fact, the FDA recently approved Epidiolex oral solution for the treatment of seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. Epidiolex is an oral solution of oil-based CBD that is extracted from marijuana plants.

What other medical conditions?

While it is not approved to treat any other medical conditions, cannabidiol is being studied to treat people with ADHD, anxiety, autism, schizophrenia, chronic pain, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson disease, Tourette syndrome, and substance use disorders.

Should You Try CBD Oil?

What does that mean right now if you have a child with anxiety or another disorder and you are interested in CBD oil?

Although it might be tempting to buy and try the CBD oil that you can find at your local health food store, remember that they aren’t the same thing as Epidiolex, the prescription version of CBD. When you buy an over-the-counter CBD product, you have no idea what dosage of CBD you are really getting.

Anyway, until further testing is done, you have no idea what dose to give your child with anxiety or any other disorder besides seizures anyway.

And like other drugs, CBD oil can have side effects.

So unless you can get in a clinical trial, you should likely wait and continue your current therapies.

But since Epidiolex is approved to treat certain seizures, can’t your doctor simply prescribe it off-label to treat other conditions, like anxiety, if they wanted to? While that does often happen for other medications, it is very unlikely to happen for Epidiolex, even after the rescheduling process is completed and it is no longer a Schedule I substance and can be prescribed in states where it is illegal to prescribe medical marijuana.

It is estimated that Epidiolex will cost over $30,000 a year.

More on the Evidence for CBD Oil

Last Updated on August 29, 2018 by Vincent Iannelli, MD

Author: Vincent Iannelli, MD

Vincent Iannelli, MD

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