Using CBD Oil to Treat Severe Epilepsy in Children, with Dr. Richard Huntsman

As a pediatric neurologist, Dr. Richard Huntsman sees the children with the most medically complex epilepsy

"It completely disrupts the life of a family," said Huntsman. "Limitations on what the child can do, limitations on what the family can do."

"When the kids have really severe and difficult-to-control epilepsy, It's a huge burden on their parents."

Eight years ago, parents started asking Huntsman about whether they could try treating their childrens' seizures -- with cannabis.

Back then, Canadian health officials allowed doctors to prescribe the medical use of dried marijuana buds -- which meant smoking them.

"No pediatrician would recommend that for a child," said Huntsman, who said any therapeutic benefits and dosages for cannabis products at the time amounted to a big question mark.

"I was maybe a little bit skeptical that we would see huge improvements," Huntsman said. 

As an associate professor of pediatric neurology in the College of Medicine, Huntsman knew CBD and THC contain anticonvulsants.

He wanted high-quality, independent data, so he designed an investigator-sponsored study to test cannabis on epileptic children.

"I certainly did raise eyebrows when I went to the different funding agencies," he said, crediting his department, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital Foundation for their financial backing.

"That took a lot of courage."

Huntsman and his team approached Saskatoon-area licenced producer CanniMed, Canada's first licenced producer of medical marijuana, to create a food-grade CBD oil for children with a targeted ingredient list.

"We knew exactly what was in it with regards to concentrations of cannabidiol, THC, and to a lesser degree other cannabinoids which are present in these compounds," Huntsman said.

He then recruited 20 Canadian children with drug-resistant, medically severe epilepsy started by recording their baseline seizure frequency. Eleven of them attended monthly appointments in Saskatoon, to participate in the study.

Parents turned in detailed medical journals each visit, including changes they observed in their child and in their family's quality of life.

The CBD oil worked.

"The reduction in seizure frequency was around 60 per cent." said Huntsman, calling the findings 'really significant'.

Although not all children responded the same way, Huntsman was even more surprised to see a number of children become entirely seizure-free by the end of the study.

"These were kids who'd tried multiple multiple medications, had tried ketogenic diets, had tried things like steroids, etc to control their seizures."

In this episode, we hear how those patients are doing today, and why one young boy's case became a true 'aha' moment for Huntsman.

"He was interacting more, he was laughing at funny bits of movies, which he'd never done before." said Huntsman.

Huntsman founded the Cannabinoid Research Initiative of Saskatchewan, hoping to join forces with other biomedical researchers to learn more about CBD and THC, and whether they're more effective in combinations or alone.

In this episode, we also hear  where Huntsman wants to see more research, with hundreds of cannabinoids and potential compounds to explore.