Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41378349›Full record

ArticlemedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences2025

Cannabidiol blood metabolite levels after cannabidiol treatment are associated with broadband EEG changes and improvements in visuomotor and non-verbal cognitive abilities in boys with autism requiring higher levels of support.

Christian Cazares, Austin Hutton, Gisselle Paez, Doris Trauner, Bradley Voytek

Registry-linked trialAbstract readPreprint
In one paragraph

Article in medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04517799 (A Double-Blind, Crossover Trial of Cannabidiol to Treat Severe Behavior Problems in Children With Autism), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT04517799 phase2active not recruitingnot on this map

A Double-Blind, Crossover Trial of Cannabidiol to Treat Severe Behavior Problems in Children With Autism

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity of California, San DiegoRan2020 to 2025Enrolled42ConditionsAutism, Autism Spectrum DisorderArmsEpidiolex, placebo oral solution
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Christian CazaresDepartment of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.ORCID 0000-0002-8899-2109
Austin HuttonDepartment of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
Gisselle PaezDepartment of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA.
Doris TraunerDepartment of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA.ORCID 0000-0002-1786-7597
Bradley VoytekDepartment of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.ORCID 0000-0003-1640-2525

Funding

UC San Diego Clinical and Translational Research InstituteUL1TR001442 · NCATS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI FIRESTEIN, GARY S, HOGARTH, MICHAEL · 2015 to 2024
$88.3M
UCSD/SDSU IRACDAK12GM068524 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI TREJO, JOANN · 2003 to 2025
$24.4M
Preparing Transfer Students for Research Careers in NeuroscienceR25NS119707 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI Brenda L Bloodgood, ASHLEY LAUREN JUAVINETT · 2021 to 2026
$1.6M
Investigating Orbitofrontal Circuit Mechanisms of Social Rank and Dominance BehaviorK00MH132569 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · PI CAZARES, CHRISTIAN · 2022 to 2025
$318k
NCATS NIH HHS UL1 TR001442NIGMS NIH HHS K12 GM068524NIMH NIH HHS K00 MH132569NINDS NIH HHS R25 NS119707
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Oral cannabidiol (CBD) treatment has been suggested to alleviate severe symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While many CBD preparations have been studied in clinical trials involving ASD, none has used purified CBD preparations or preparations approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, nor have they focused on children with ASD with higher support needs. Previous studies have identified several candidate electrophysiological biomarkers of cognitive and behavioral disabilities in ASD, with emerging biomarkers including periodic (oscillatory) and aperiodic measures of neural activity. We analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 24 boys with ASD and higher support needs (aged 7-14 years) from a prior double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover Phase II Clinical Trial (NCT04517799) that investigated whether 8 weeks of daily CBD treatment (titrated to 20 mg/kg/day) improved severe behavioral problems, measured at baseline, post-CBD, post-placebo, and post-washout. Using linear mixed effect models, we found that aperiodic EEG measures varied with CBD metabolite levels in blood, as evidenced by a larger aperiodic offset across the scalp and a decreased aperiodic exponent across occipital electrodes. Furthermore, CBD metabolite levels in blood had a positive association with receptive vocabulary, nonverbal intelligence and visuomotor coordination. Our data suggest that this daily CBD preparation and administration schedule produced mixed effects, with some children showing improvements in cognitive and behavioral abilities while others demonstrated limited changes. Our findings support the inclusion of aperiodic EEG measures alongside traditional oscillatory EEG measures as candidate biomarkers for tracking the variable clinical impact of purified CBD treatment in children with ASD.

Identifiers

PMID41378349
PMCPMC12687798

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.