The Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2050, Australia.
Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 5;8(1):10154. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28127-0.
Recent surveys suggest that many parents are using illicit cannabis extracts in the hope of managing seizures in their children with epilepsy. In the current Australian study we conducted semi-structured interviews with families of children with diverse forms of epilepsy to explore their attitudes towards and experiences with using cannabis extracts. This included current or previous users of cannabis extracts to treat their child's seizures (n = 41 families), and families who had never used (n = 24 families). For those using cannabis, extracts were analysed for cannabinoid content, with specific comparison of samples rated by families as "effective" versus those rated "ineffective". Results showed that children given cannabis extracts tended to have more severe epilepsy historically and had trialled more anticonvulsants than those who had never received cannabis extracts. There was high variability in the cannabinoid content and profile of cannabis extracts rated as "effective", with no clear differences between extracts perceived as "effective" and "ineffective". Contrary to family's expectations, most samples contained low concentrations of cannabidiol, while Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol was present in nearly every sample. These findings highlight profound variation in the illicit cannabis extracts being currently used in Australia and warrant further investigations into the therapeutic value of cannabinoids in epilepsy.
最近的调查表明，许多父母正在使用非法大麻提取物，希望以此控制患有癫痫的孩子的癫痫发作。在目前澳大利亚的这项研究中，我们对患有不同类型癫痫的儿童的家庭进行了半结构化访谈，以探讨他们对使用大麻提取物的态度和经验。这包括当前或以前使用大麻提取物治疗孩子癫痫发作的家庭（n=41 个家庭），以及从未使用过的家庭（n=24 个家庭）。对于那些使用大麻的家庭，我们分析了大麻提取物的大麻素含量，并对家庭评定为“有效”和“无效”的样本进行了具体比较。结果表明，给予大麻提取物的儿童往往有更严重的癫痫病史，并且比从未接受过大麻提取物的儿童尝试了更多的抗癫痫药物。被评定为“有效”的大麻提取物的大麻素含量和成分存在很大差异，“有效”和“无效”的提取物之间没有明显差异。与家庭的预期相反，大多数样本中含有低浓度的大麻二酚，而几乎每个样本中都含有 Δ-四氢大麻酚。这些发现突显了目前在澳大利亚使用的非法大麻提取物存在明显差异，需要进一步调查大麻素在癫痫中的治疗价值。
