Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders comprise conditions that may affect cognitive development, motor skills, social interaction, communication, and behavior. This set of functional deficits often results in lack of independence for the diagnosed individuals, and severe distress for patients, families, and caregivers. There is a mounting body of evidence indicating the effectiveness of pure cannabidiol (CBD) and CBD-enriched Cannabis sativa extract (CE) for the treatment of autistic symptoms in refractory epilepsy patients. There is also increasing data support for the hypothesis that non-epileptic autism shares underlying etiological mechanisms with epilepsy. Here we report an observational study with a cohort of 18 autistic patients undergoing treatment with compassionate use of standardized CBD-enriched CE (with a CBD to THC ratio of 75/1). Among the 15 patients who adhered to the treatment (10 non-epileptic and five epileptic) only one patient showed lack of improvement in autistic symptoms. Due to adverse effects, three patients discontinued CE use before 1 month. After 6–9 months of treatment, most patients, including epileptic and non-epileptic, showed some level of improvement in more than one of the eight symptom categories evaluated: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Behavioral Disorders; Motor Deficits; Autonomy Deficits; Communication and Social Interaction Deficits; Cognitive Deficits; Sleep Disorders and Seizures, with very infrequent and mild adverse effects. The strongest improvements were reported for Seizures, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Sleep Disorders, and Communication and Social Interaction Deficits. This was especially true for the 10 non-epileptic patients, nine of which presented improvement equal to or above 30% in at least one of the eight categories, six presented improvement of 30% or more in at least two categories and four presented improvement equal to or above 30% in at least four symptom categories. Ten out of the 15 patients were using other medicines, and nine of these were able to keep the improvements even after reducing or withdrawing other medications. The results reported here are very promising and indicate that CBD-enriched CE may ameliorate multiple ASD symptoms even in non-epileptic patients, with substantial increase in life quality for both ASD patients and caretakers.
Highlights
According to the DSM 5 (2013), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by functional deficits in three areas: mental development, social interaction, and behavior [1]
Mostly positive outcomes were reported for the 15 patients that adhered to the standardized Cannabis sativa extract (CE) treatment, especially regarding improvements in sleep disorders, seizures, and behavioral crisis
From the 15 patients who adhered to the treatment with standardized EC, 15 had symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); 15 of Behavioral Disorders (BD); 12 of Motor Deficits (MD); 15 of Autonomy Deficits (AD); 15 of Communication and Social Interaction Deficits (CSID); 15 of Cognitive Deficits (CD); 12 of Sleep Disorders (SD); and 5 of SZ
Summary
According to the DSM 5 (2013), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by functional deficits in three areas: mental development, social interaction, and behavior [1]. The term ASD comprises a broad group of syndromes, diseases, and disorders [3, 4], that can affect cognitive development, motor skills, social interaction, communication, and behavior (frequently including auto and hetero-aggressiveness) [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Often, this set of functional deficits results in incapacitation, lack of independence and severe distress for patients, families, and caregivers. None of these drus has been shown to significantly improve the lack of social interaction and communication skills that characterize and impose great impact on the lives of patients with ASD and their families
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
