What Is the Evidence for CBD Oil?

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.

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

• The Cannabis Market That Could Grow 700% By 2020
• Medical Marijuana and Epilepsy
• FDA – FDA and Marijuana: Questions and Answers
• NIH – The Biology and Potential Therapeutic Effects of Cannabidiol
• FDA – FDA approves first drug comprised of an active ingredient derived from marijuana to treat rare, severe forms of epilepsy
• FDA – Drug Trials Snapshots: Epidiolex
• Study – Effect of Cannabidiol on Drop Seizures in the Lennox–Gastaut Syndrome
• Study – Trial of Cannabidiol for Drug-Resistant Seizures in the Dravet Syndrome
• Study – Cannabidiol in patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy: an open-label interventional trial.
• Study – CBD-enriched medical cannabis for intractable pediatric epilepsy: The current Israeli experience.
• Study – Cannabidiol as a Potential Treatment for Anxiety Disorders
• Clinical Trial – Shifting Brain Excitation-Inhibition Balance in Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Clinical Trial – Cannabinoids for Behavioral Problems in Children With ASD (CBA)
• Is Marijuana A Benefit Or A Bad Idea For Autism And Schizophrenia?
• Anecdotes and Cannabis Oil
• Anxiety Relief Without The High? New Studies On CBD, A Cannabis Extract
• Is CBD a Remedy for Autism? TBD.
• Is CBD oil legal in Ohio? State regulators say no
• The drug maker behind the first FDA-approved medication derived from marijuana has revealed how much it’ll cost
• 9 Facts about Cannabidiol (CBD) Oil and the Texas Compassionate Use Act
• If cannabis and vitamin B17 kill cancer, why aren’t they approved by the FDA? Let me explain
• Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 1: Science versus the politics of weed in New York and beyond
• Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 2: Cannabis does not cure cancer
• Medical marijuana and the new herbalism, part 3: Cannabis does not cure breast cancer
• Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 4: Cannabis for autism
• Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 5: Turning herbalism into science-based medicine
• Vaginal marijuana for menstrual cramps: the grass isn’t always greener
• Did cannabis oil save Deryn Blackwell, the “boy in seven billion,” when his bone marrow transplant for two cancers was failing?
• FDA – FDA warns companies marketing unproven products, derived from marijuana, that claim to treat or cure cancer

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