SINGAPORE: A 25 per cent improvement in social abilities and reduced anxiety – those are the newly published results driving researchers to seek federal funding for a larger trial of CBD oil in autistic children.
The Deakin University pilot study, now published in the peer-reviewed journal Autism Research, tested the cannabis compound in 29 primary school-aged children with promising outcomes that lead researcher Dr Talitha Ford says warrant a much larger, multi-site trial to determine which children benefit most.
“The results showed that there was some improvement in social relating abilities for the kids overall compared to the placebo, and some improvements in parent-rated anxiety and social relating, and improvements in parental stress,” Dr Ford said.
“We’re a bit excited about that.”
The 2023 trial involved children aged 5-12 in a crossover study – half the participants took CBD oil once a day for 12 weeks before switching to a placebo, while the other half did the reverse.
“The kids responded really well in terms of tolerability. We had a couple of kids get a little bit of an upset tummy, but not many and it resolved very quickly,” Dr Ford said.
Deakin Research Fellow Dr Nina Parrella said many children with autism face significant challenges in social and education settings.
“Commonly prescribed medications for these children can have unfavourable side effects, so it’s important we investigate well-tolerated options that may support day-to-day wellbeing,” she said.
Now researchers have their sights set on a larger trial.
“It was a small sample size so we really just need to run large trials to properly assess safety, first and foremost, and also efficacy,” Dr Ford said.
“We’ve been applying for federal government funding to be able to run a larger trial, across multiple sites to see if it’s effective more broadly, and in which groups – if it’s particularly helpful for children with intellectual disability, whether it’s different in boys and girls, whether it’s different depending on the degree of their social relating difficulties.”
The CBD oil used in the trial did not contain THC which means it was non-intoxicating and doesn’t cause a “high”.
CBD works by calming brain systems linked to anxiety and stress regulation.
The results highlighted autism’s enormous diversity, with about a third of participants – non-verbal children with intellectual disability – showing improvements in eye contact and family engagement that can be hard to measure.
“Autism is one of the most diverse conditions there is. It’s not a one size fits all,” Dr Ford said.
“None of them are going to be perfect for every child. Finding different options for different children and adults is really important as we try to help them engage more in the social world if they want to … We’re not forcing people to be more engaged, it’s completely about their personal choice.
“Building a strong evidence base for CBD as a safe and effective option for autistic children and adults will hopefully lead to increased accessibility via the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme),” Dr Ford said.