Scientific Research into Medicinal Cannabis – Epilepsy & Seizures
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder, often signified by recurrent, unprovoked seizures. A person is diagnosed with epilepsy if they have two unprovoked seizures (or one unprovoked seizure with the likelihood of more) that were not caused by some known and reversible medical condition like alcohol withdrawal or extremely low blood sugar.
The seizures in epilepsy may be related to a brain injury or a family tendency, but often the cause is completely unknown. The word “epilepsy” does not indicate anything about the cause of the person’s seizures or their severity.
Seizure symptoms can vary widely. Some people with epilepsy simply stare blankly for a few seconds during a seizure, while others repeatedly twitch their arms or legs. Having a single seizure doesn’t mean you have epilepsy. At least two unprovoked seizures are generally required for an epilepsy diagnosis.
Treatment with medications or sometimes surgery can control seizures for the majority of people with epilepsy. Some people require lifelong treatment to control seizures, but for others, the seizures eventually go away. Some children with epilepsy may outgrow the condition with age.
We have listed the latest scientific research into cannabidiol and other cannabinoids and their potential uses treating Epilepsy & Seizures
- CBD for children with Dravet’s and intractable seizures
- Report of a parent survey of CBD-enriched cannabis use in pediatric treatment-resistant epilepsy
- Medicinal marijuana stops seizures, brings hope to a little girl
- Cannabinoids for epilepsy
- Cannabis, CBD, and epilepsy – From receptors to clinical response
- The non-psychotropic plant cannabinoids, cannabidivarin (CBDV) and cannabidiol (CBD), activate and desensitize transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channels in vitro: potential for the treatment of neuronal hyperexcitability
- Chronic administration of CBD to healthy volunteers and epileptic patients
- Endocannabinoid system protects against cryptogenic seizures
- Seizing an opportunity for the endocannabinoid system
- Cannabidiol: promise and pitfalls
- Cannabidiol: Pharmacology and potential therapeutic role in epilepsy and other neuropsychiatric disorders
- From the Editors: Cannabidiol and medical marijuana for the treatment of epilepsy
- Cannabidivarin (CBDV) suppressespentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-inducedincreases in epilepsy-related gene expression
- CBD exerts anti-convulsant effects in animal models of temporal lobe and partial seizures
- Cannabidiol displays antiepileptiform and antiseizure properties in vitro and in vivo
- Hypnotic and antiepileptic effects of CBD
- The cannabinoids as potential antiepileptics
- Cannabidiol–antiepileptic drug comparisons and interactions in experimentally induced seizures in rats
- CBD Post-Treatment Alleviates Rat Epileptic-Related Behaviors
- Pharmacology of cannabinoids in the treatment of epilepsy
- Therapeutic effects of cannabinoids in animal models of seizures, epilepsy, epileptogenesis, and epilepsy-related neuroprotection
- Report from a Survey of Parents Regarding the Use of Cannabidiol in Mexican Children with Refractory Epilepsy.
- Protective Effects of Cannabidiol against Seizures and Neuronal Death in a Rat Model of Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
- CBD Treatment for Refractory Seizures in Sturge-Weber Syndrome
- Could Cannabidiol be a Treatment Option for Intractable Childhood and Adolescent Epilepsy?
According to https://www.epilepsy.com
- There is evidence that cannabis can be helpful in controling seizures, especially for difficult to control conditions like Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) in children and adults and Dravet syndrome in children.
- Marijuana or cannabis has a number of side effects. In open-labeled studies on the use of cannabidiol, side effects included sleepiness, diarrhea, fatigue, and decreased appetitie. CBD also has interactions with some epilepsy medications.
Does cannabis help seizures?
Evidence from laboratory studies, anecdotal reports, and small clinical studies from a number of years ago suggest that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis, could potentially be helpful in controlling seizures.
Open-label studies in the U.S. of Epidiolex (a drug derived from cannabidiol or CBD) are being performed. Epidiolex is a purified, 99% oil-based CBD extract from the cannabis plant and is produced by GW Pharmaceuticals to give known and consistent amounts in each dose.
20 participants in the study, aged two to 18, all have a serious form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, which starts during childhood and usually can’t be treated, says study co-author Daniel Friedman, a professor of neurology at the NYU Langone Medical Center. They were randomized into two groups: one group took 20 mg/kg of CBD per day for 14 weeks and one took a placebo. (This type of randomized controlled trial is considered the gold standard for a clinical study. When you randomly assign people, you make sure that whatever is being tested actually causes the results, and that the outcome isn’t just because the two groups are different to begin with.)
The researchers found that the group that took CBD had about six seizures a month instead of 12. In the placebo group, they had about 14 seizures a month, instead of 15. And three people taking CBD stopped having seizures altogether.
There is one big downside though: about 93 percent of people taking CBD had side effects — mostly nausea, diarrhea, but also sleepiness and liver abnormality. And eight people in the CBD group dropped out because of the side effects.
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