Cannabis and epilepsy: myth or reality?

Key words: Drug-resistant epilepsy, Cannabidiol, Child

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest for the use of medical Cannabis in Paediatrics. Several pharmacological properties are attributed to Cannabis by preclinical studies, but the most important application is related to the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy. The aim of this paper is to review the preclinical data on cannabidiol, one of the most popular cannabinoids, and to discuss the recent clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine that led the US Food and Drug Administration to approve a drug derived from marijuana for treating two rare and severe forms of epilepsy: the Dravet syndrome and the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.