Children with severe epilepsy could be helped by a new treatment derived from the cannabis plant which is to be trialled in the UK.
Doctors in the UK have been given the go-ahead to test the medicine, which does not contain the ingredient that produces the high associated with recreational cannabis use.
The treatment - called Epidiolex - is based on one of the non-psychoactive components of the cannabis plant, called CBD.
Early studies in the US have shown that treatment with CBD may reduce the frequency and severity of seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy.
The new trial marks the first time the treatment has been tested in the UK.
Patients are being enrolled for a randomised controlled trial of the treatment at The University of Edinburgh's Muir Maxwell Epilepsy Centre, based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Dr Richard Chin, Director of the Muir Maxwell Epilepsy Centre, said: "Many children with serious forms of epilepsy do not respond to the medications that we currently have available. We need new means of treating these conditions so that we can give back some quality of life to these children and their families."
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool are also driving the study while there are further centres in the US, France and Poland.
Their initial focus will be on children with Dravet Syndrome, a rare but serious type of epilepsy that is difficult to treat.
Some children will receive the treatment while others will receive a placebo.