Case Study: Can Medical Marijuana Help Epilepsy Patients?

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Can Medical Marijuana Help Epilepsy Patients? Epilepsy can be a difficult medical condition to treat. Although there are many different medications that someone can try, medications do not work for everyone. One third of patients with epilepsy are unable to be controlled with medication. “Epilepsy can be one of the most difficult syndromes to treat. About a third of patients have an intractable form of epilepsy. It’s common for children and adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy to exhaust the list of anti-seizure medications to little or no effect.” (Chen 3) A group of compounds found in marijuana, known as cannabinoids influence seizure regularity in the brain. Cannabidiol, which is also found in marijuana, has positive effects on stopping seizures with out getting the user high. Cannabidiol contains low levels of THC, …show more content…

(Epilepsy Foundation) The first pharmaceutical drug that contains pure, oil based extracts of cannabidiol is waiting for approval by the FDA. It would be the first drug that would be available to patients that contains pure cannabidiol, and it would be the first time that patients who use medical marijuana would be guaranteed what they are getting. (CBS News) Almost half of 500,000 children in America who have epilepsy are not controlled by medication. Marijuana has been shown to help lower seizure frequency, and also helps improve the overall quality of the person’s life. Charlotte Figi was a young five year old who was having 300 seizures a month. Her quality of life was low, she was unable to feed herself, and she had a hard time even walking and talking. The medical marijuana that she was given helped her get a better quality of life. Medical marijuana can be

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