Category Archives: Epilepsy

Dad says marijuana saved his 6-year-old son’s life – msn

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“”Miraculous” stories from people who say medical marijuana helped them when all else failed keep rolling in.”

Still of father and son who were saved by THC - via KCRA, http://aka.ms/dope-cure

“The latest? A 6-year-old boy from Modesto, Calif., named Jayden David. Just like a young girl in Colorado, he suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. The disorder gave Jayden seizures so severe and frequent, he couldn’t walk, play or do much of anything. He often had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors prescribed as many as 22 pills a day. Nothing worked. “At one point Jayden had seizures 24 hours a day lasting an hour and a half,” his father, Jason David, told local station KCRA. “I went to my doctor and said, ‘I don’t think Jayden is going to last. He can’t sleep, can’t eat. He hasn’t used the restroom. He cant do anything.'”

With no alternate options, the doctor prescribed a liquid form of cannabis called CBD, which gives less of a high. It was the first day of his entire life that Jayden went seizure-free. In the two years since, he’s taken CBD daily and now walks, plays and laughs happily. Jason credits medical marijuana with saving his son’s life — and says he’s speaking out now to help other parents with children in Jayden’s situation. “How can I not tell people, ‘Hey, save your children’s lives?'” he asks.”

http://now.msn.com/jayden-david-6-was-saved-by-medical-marijuana-dad-says

Marijuana Saves Child With Seizures; Others Must Wait

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“Parents of a 5-yr-old Colorado girl who suffered from severe seizures say medical marijuana has saved their child’s life.  Footage of the child before and after she was given cannabis was shown Sunday in a documentary, “Weed,” aired on CNN hosted by Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon.
 

Buoyed by previously published reports and You-Tube videos of the child’s remarkable recovery, several New Jersey parents have been pushing for the opportunity to give cannabis to their seriously ill children.   They want Gov. Christie to sign a bill that would pave the way. 

Paige and Matt Figi said in the CNN interview that their daughter, Charlotte, had 300 seizures a week before she was administered drops of cannabis under her tongue a year ago.  She had been in a catatonic state, unable to eat, talk, or walk.  Now, after regularly using cannabis, she has only one seizure every seven days, the parents said.  Footage shows her talking, walking, laughing, riding a bicycle and also a horse. 

Forty-one other children had similar results, according to the documentary. 

Gupta traveled around the world, interviewing other seriously ill patients who got astonishing  results by using cannabis.  In Israel, some studies show the drug has helped sufferers of Crohn’s Disease, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and cancer. 

There also are detractors – doctors who say not enough research has been done, as interviewed by Gupta.  The American Academy of Pediatricians also oppose giving it to children.  

Meghan and Brian Wilson, the parents of two-year-old Vivian, who live in Scotch Plains, in North Jersey, have spent the last few months lobbying to get changes in New Jersey’s three-year-old marijuana law to make it easier for children to use cannabis.  It’s legal in the state for children to use it – in fact Vivian was issued a marijuana card in February because she too suffers from a severe type of epilepsy.  But cannabis is not allowed to be sold in edible form and requires three doctors to sign off on it before a child can obtain it. 

A bill that was overwhelming passed by the legislature is sitting on Gov. Christie’s desk.  He has said he is reluctant, but will consider it.  He has until Friday, Aug. 16, to decide.

It’s not known whether Christie watched the CNN documentary.” 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/Marijuana-Saves-Child-With-Seizures-Others-Must-Wait–.html

Medical marijuana stopped girl’s seizures when nothing else would – msn

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Photo of Charlotte Figi - Realm of Caring via Facebook

 

“Charlotte Figi had her first seizure in 2006, when she was 3 months old. Her parents, Matt and Paige Figi, had every test conducted, yet no cause could be found. Years passed, and the seizures continued. Charlotte took medications, but she stopped developing cognitively. She was finally diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome. Matt discovered the case of a boy with Dravet who’d been helped by low-level THC medical marijuana. By that point, Charlotte couldn’t walk, talk or eat, and she was having up to 300 grand mal seizures a week.

Desperate to find a solution, Matt and Paige applied for a medical marijuana card, making Charlotte, then 5, the youngest applicant in Colorado. They gave her a small amount of cannabis oil. The seizures stopped. Now Charlotte takes the oil twice daily with food, has only a few seizures a week, and is walking, talking and riding her bike. “My thought now is why were we the ones that had to go out and find this cure? This natural cure?” says Matt. “How come [a doctor] didn’t make me aware of this?””

http://now.msn.com/charlotte-figi-colorado-girl-has-seizures-treated-by-medical-marijuana

“Meet the first 6-year-old medical marijuana user” http://fox2now.com/2013/08/12/meet-the-first-6-year-old-medical-marijuana-user/

Marijuana stops child’s severe seizures – CNN

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“…Charlotte gets a dose of the cannabis oil twice a day in her food.

Gedde found three to four milligrams of oil per pound of the girl’s body weight stopped the seizures.

Today, Charlotte, 6, is thriving. Her seizures only happen two to three times per month, almost solely in her sleep. Not only is she walking, she can ride her bicycle. She feeds herself and is talking more and more each day.

“I literally see Charlotte’s brain making connections that haven’t been made in years,” Matt said. “My thought now is, why were we the ones that had to go out and find this cure? This natural cure? How come a doctor didn’t know about this? How come they didn’t make me aware of this?”

The marijuana strain Charlotte and now 41 other patients use to ease painful symptoms of diseases such as epilepsy and cancer has been named after the little girl who is getting her life back one day at a time.

It’s called Charlotte’s Web.”

More: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/index.html

Medical Marijuana Returns Life To 6-Year-Old: Cannabis Oil Stopped Charlotte Figi’s Severe Seizures

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Medical Marijuana

“Medical marijuana changed everything for Charlotte Figi. CNN reports that after the six-year-old was started on daily doses of cannabis oil, her debilitating seizures subsided and her cognitive functions improved dramatically.

Thanks to a federally controlled substance, she is now living a normal life.”

 More: http://www.medicaldaily.com/medical-marijuana-returns-life-6-year-old-cannabis-oil-stopped-charlotte-figis-severe-seizures

Cannabidivarin-rich cannabis extracts are anticonvulsant in mouse and rat via a CB1 receptor-independent mechanism.

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“Epilepsy is the most prevalent neurological disease and is characterised by recurrent seizures. Here we investigate: (i) the anticonvulsant profiles of cannabis-derived botanical drug substances (BDS) rich in cannabidivarin (CBDV) and containing cannabidiol (CBD) in acute in vivo seizure models and (ii) the binding of CBDV BDSs and their components at cannabinoid CB1 receptors.

CDBV BDSs exerted significant anticonvulsant effects… 

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:

CBDV BDSs exerted significant anticonvulsant effects in three models of seizure that were not mediated by the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, and were of comparable efficacy to purified CBDV.

These findings strongly support the further clinical development of CBDV BDSs for treatment of epilepsy.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23902406

“Cannabidivarin is anticonvulsant in mouse and rat… These results indicate that CBDV is an effective anticonvulsant in a broad range of seizure models.”  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22970845

CB1 agonists, locally applied to the cortico-thalamic circuit of rats with genetic absence epilepsy, reduce epileptic manifestations.

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“Drugs that modulate the endocannabinoid system and endocannabinoids typically play an anticonvulsant role although some proconvulsant effects have been reported both in humans and animal models.

 This study aims to characterize the role of cannabinoids in specific areas of the cortico-thalamic network involved in oscillations that underlie seizures in a genetic animal model of absence epilepsy, the WAG/Rij rat.

These results, together with previous reports, support therapeutic potential for endocannabinoid system modulators in absence epilepsy and highlight that attenuated endocannabinergic function may contribute to the generation and maintenance of seizures. Furthermore, the entire cortico-thalamic network responds to cannabinoid treatment, indicating that in all areas considered, CB receptor activation inhibits the pathological synchronization that subserves absence seizures.

 In conclusion, our result might be useful for the identification of future drug therapies in absence epilepsy.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23860329

Medicinal marijuana stops seizures, brings hope to a little girl – NBC

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“Six-year-old Charlotte Figi, a picture of precious in her “Gatsby”-style bob and blue toenails, stands patiently as her mother reaches up her dress to change her out of her soiled Pull-Ups.”

Read more on Colorado Springs Gazette

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52147512/ns/local_news-colorado_springs_co/t/medicinal-marijuana-stops-seizures-brings-hope-little-girl/

‘Milestone’ epilepsy drug based on cannabis

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A collaboration between a UK research team and international medicine manufacturers may lead to a ‘milestone’ treatment for epilepsy. This treatment appears more bearable than current epilepsy medicines – and is based on cannabis.

A research team at the University of Reading performed the research, which was recently published in The British Journal of Pharmacology. Their research explored the use of cannibidivarin – a natural chemical called a ‘cannabinoid’ from the cannabis plant.

Cannibidivarin does not have psychoactive properties (anyone taking a drug based on this chemical will not feel ‘high’ as a result). It appears to reduce seizure frequency in laboratory animals with epilepsy and has fewer side-effects than traditional epilepsy medicines. The new drug can also be safely combined with regular medications.

Lead study author, Dr Ben Whalley, said: “This is an enormously exciting milestone in our investigations into non-psychoactive elements of cannabis as treatments for epilepsy. Our work has highlighted the potential for a solution based on cannabinoid science. It has shown that cannabidivarin is the most effective and best tolerated anticonvulsant plant cannabinoid investigated to date.””

More: http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/news/news/%E2%80%98milestone%E2%80%99-epilepsy-drug-based-cannabis

Marijuana and its receptor protein in brain control epilepsy

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“VCU study is first to test anticonvulsant potential of marijuana and brain recurrent seizures. 

Ingredients in marijuana and the cannabinoid receptor protein produced naturally in the body to regulate the central nervous system and other bodily functions play a critical role in controlling spontaneous seizures in epilepsy, according to a new study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The study, the first to look at marijuana and the brain’s cannabinoid system in live animals with spontaneous, recurrent seizures, suggests new avenues that researchers can explore in their search for more-effective drugs to treat epileptic patients who don’t respond to today’s anticonvulsant medications or surgery.

The results appear in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

“Although marijuana is illegal in the United States, individuals both here and abroad report that marijuana has been therapeutic for them in the treatment of a variety of ailments, including epilepsy,” says Dr. Robert J. DeLorenzo, professor of neurology in the VCU School of Medicine.

 “If we can understand how marijuana works to end seizures, we may be able to develop novel drugs that might do a better job of treating epileptic seizures.” 

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions, characterized by spontaneously recurrent seizures. Approximately 1 percent of Americans have epilepsy, and 30 percent of those patients are resistant to conventional anticonvulsant drug treatments.

Cannabinoids have been used as a natural remedy for seizures for thousands of years, and studies since at least 1974 have found that the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana displays anticonvulsant properties.” 

More:http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Marijuana_and_its_receptor_protein_in_brain_control_epilepsy