Anup Patel, MD: The Realities of Cannabidiol Treatment for Epilepsy

“You still see that there are false medical claims on CBD and how safe and effective it is for everything.”

At the 2019 International Epilepsy Congress, Anup Patel, MD, addressed a wide range of topics regarding the treatment of severe epilepsy, including questions surrounding whether treatment with cannabidiol (CBD) should be more commonplace across the epilepsy spectrum or reserved for severe syndromes such as Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Patel analyzed issues with overprescribing pharmaceutical-grade CBD, as well as the availability of over-the-counter CBD products, noting that less severe cases of epilepsy should be treated with more traditional pharmaceutical drugs since CBD can be associated with elevated liver enzymes, as well as other adverse effects. He detailed how patients and caregivers can be easily misguided by information or lack thereof on CBD products.

In an interview with NeurologyLive, Patel expressed his concern with the lack of well-rounded studies on CBD but remained optimistic that there is room for the drug to potentially be beneficial in other diseases.