Uri Kramer, MD: Treating Epilepsy With Cannabis

“Should it be single molecule like CBD, or should it be CBD combined with THC—like what most people are using and what we’re using in Tel Aviv—or should it be some other combination?”

At the American Epilepsy Society’s (AES) annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, a main topic of conversation was the new therapies that have emerged from the pipeline—specifically, the cannabinoids.

For Uri Kramer, MD, the former director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Service at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, this was not necessarily an option several years ago. Although, as more research has emerged over the past few years, he has flipped his opinion. Coupled with the recent FDA approval of GW Pharmaceuticals’ cannabidiol (Epidiolex), it appears that this treatment option is only going to continue to evolve.

Currently, the debate surrounding the use of cannabis for epilepsy is mainly about the types that should be therapeutically utilized. To explain further what has been fleshed out by the research and to share his opinion on cannabidiol’s use, the professor of pediatrics at Tel Aviv University sat with NeurologyLive on site.