The Treatment of Epilepsy with Medical Marijuana Marijuana has been a heated debate for generations. For years, people have argued whether or not Marijuana should be legalized despite the drug’s negative side effects. For instance, “The Case for Medical Marijuana,” (Maa & Figi) (2015) cases such as Charlotte Figi’s show the importance of the legalization of marijuana. For some legalization means life or death. New scientific proof suggests that Marijuana is much safer than other chemical compounds used in other medications to treat epilepsy. Although Marijuana has negative side effects, the positive effects of marijuana are more beneficial and less harmful than the side effects from most synthetic medications used to combat the disease. Therefore, …show more content…
In “The Case for Medical Marijuana in Epilepsy.” (2015) Edward Maa and Paige Figi (Charlotte’s Mother), recant the experiences of epilepsy in a patient before and after the use of medical marijuana. Charlotte encountered her first seizure at 3 months old. The frequency and severity of the seizures quickly escalated and Charlotte was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome. By the age of five Charlotte had no quality of life. The child was “at the end of her road.” “The Case for Medical Marijuana” (783) (Maa& Figi) (2015) the family had tried many other medications, but none seemed to work. It was then when Charlotte’s mother decided to take measures into her own hands. Paige Figi had heard of an epileptic patient in California had been successfully treated with medical marijuana. The news of hope sparked her interest to research more on the drug. Figi spoke with doctors, parents, scientist and chemist before making her decision. With the help of others previously mentioned, she decided to try Cannabis Oil or CBD oil to treat little Charlotte. Within weeks the amount of seizures Charlotte had once experienced began to decrease in large amounts. Edward Maa followed Charlotte’s journey for two years and found that the CBD oil had decreased her seizures by 90 percent and she was slowly starting to regain quality of
There is a major debate in today’s world about the legalization of cannabis, especially, in the United States. States such as California and Illinois have already moved forward in their open-minded thinking about the drug and are allowing people to use marijuana as an alternative to other prescribed drugs in treating the effects of certain ailments. The idea of legalizing marijuana is a touchy subject for many people; on the one hand its properties are beneficial to many people who suffer from many different illnesses, on the other hand, it is an illegal substance that has many addictive qualities. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s website, “Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the treatment, in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision” (DEA, 2011).... ...
Thesis: Despite its legal status cannabis and CBD has been recognized as being beneficial in many ways. After all, cannabis and CBD has been medically beneficial when treating pain, seizures, and cancer.
With marijuana is becoming legal in some states for medical reasons, other states are still questioning how marijuana can be beneficial and even a problem. In “The Truth about Medical Marijuana” by Carrie Shortsleeve, published in 2013 on the website Men’s Health, Shortsleeve describes how tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, found in marijuana, can be used for medical benefits. In the passage, she explains how the immune system and brain are affected by THC especially if the substance is high in dosage. When Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, Ph.D., “the director of the University of Mississippi’s Marijuana Project,” injured his back, he begins to research what benefits marijuana has when using the drug as medicine, and Shortsleeve shares this with people who maybe considering medical marijuana. Shortsleeve uses statistics, in depth research, and real- life situations to show how some people trust marijuana as medicine; even though, some of these people were once against medical marijuana.
Each year, U.S emergency departments treat an estimate 173,285 sports and recreation concussions. During the last decade concussions increased by 60%. Fewer than 10% of concussions result in loss of conscious. Most people recover from a single concussion. Multiple concussions take longer to recover from. The concussion Clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital utilizes the expertise of pediatric sports medicine, physical medicine, and rehabilitation specialists.
Our body mimics endogenous chemicals that we already produced in the body called endocannabinoids thats why we have receptors fits cannabis. This is shown in the documentary with a young four month old little boy now he is seven years old named Jayden suffered from his first debilitating seizure. It went downhill from there, having around 500 twitching seizures a day and in pain for hours. By the age of five years old, Jayden, had taken 25,000 pill from 12 different perceptions since four months old. Jayden’s dad was not ready to give up on him and wanted to try something new, he pick-up a liquid form of marijuana called CBD- Marijuana Extract from a dispensary. The moment Jayden received the CBD he was free from seizure, as his dad worked to remove him throughout the weeks off his prescribed pills. Cannabis has made some industrializing changes, in the late 30’s an article was put out for the public to read stating there is 25,000 uses for marijuana from engineering, food, beauty, charcoal, to materials and much more. And once it becomes legal it will be much cheaper that the pharmaceutical drugs. With the recent years that have come and are before us the understanding of marijuana’s diversity has become universally wide spread news. With a great knowledge of strains have come with new discoveries and with these discoveries are
The effects of multiple disabilities are often both multiplicative and interactive. Cerebral Palsy is a disability that originates from damage to the central nervous system, but which is often accompanied by sensory, communication, orthopedic, learning and cognitive abilities. The complex nature of cerebral palsy is related to differences in causation and the nature and degree of motor involvement. In this paper, Cerebral Palsy will be defined and described, followed by discussion of conditions that frequently occur with this disability. A description of the impact of cerebral palsy on physical and communication development will also be discussed.
Wingerchuk, Dean. "Cannabis for Medical Purposes: Cultivating Science, Weeding Out the Fiction." The Lancet 364.9431 (2004): 315-16. Print.
At 10 months old, Oliver Osborn was suffering from as much as 100 seizures a day as a result of partial migrating epilepsy, a condition which rarely sees children living past their seventh birthday. The remarkable success of Colorado native Charlotte Figi, who developed Dravet Syndrome and suffered up to 300 grand mal seizures a week, and was later treated with a cannabis extract (dubbed Charlotte’s Web) high in cannabidiol (CBD) and low in THC after conventional medicine fail, has given hope to Oliver’s family. The cannabis oil available to Charlotte has helped to control her seizures, but it is not available for use in Peterlee, County Durham in the United Kingdom where Oliver resides with parents Rik Osborn and Danielle Coils.
Epilepsy, also known as “seizure disorder,” or “seizure attack,” is the fourth most common neurological disorder known to mankind, affecting an estimated 2.3 million adults and 467,711 children in the United States. Unfortunately this disorder is becoming far more common and widespread worldwide. This staggering number of cases of people suffering from Epilepsy also involves an average growth rate of 150,000 new cases each year in the United States alone. Generally, many of the people who develop who are a part of the new are mainly either young children or older adults. Your brain communicates through chemical and electrical signals that are all specialized for specific tasks. However, through the process of communication, chemical messengers, also known as neurotransmitters can suddenly fail, resulting in what is known as a seizure attack. Epilepsy occurs when a few too many brain cells become excited, or activated simultaneously, so that the brain cannot function properly and to it’s highest potential. Epilepsy is characterized when there is an abnormal imbalance in the chemical activity of the brain, leading to a disruption in the electrical activity of the brain. This disruption specifically occurs in the central nervous system (CNS), which is the part of the nervous system that contains the brain and spinal cord. This causes an interruption in communication between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons; between the axon of one neuron, the message sender and the dendrite of another neuron, the message recipient. Consequently, the effects that epileptic seizures may induce may range anywhere from mild to severe, life-threatening ramifications and complications. There are many different types of seizures associa...
In this case study Kevin O’Brien gave an interesting anecdote for the support of medical marijuana. This case consist of a seven year old boy named JJ who suffers from psychotic and socially dysfunctional behaviour. He says he has bad thoughts and voices in his head telling him to kill his mother. Over 4 years the subject had seen 16 physicians who had prescribed him 19 different pharmaceutical drugs ranging from Ritalin to Thioridazine. The subject was monitored and noted to be overly medicated and often times slurring his words and to the extent that he could not walk. Losing hope, the subject’s mother researched medical marijuana and decided to give it a try. The medication was infused with the subject’s morning breakfast muffin. Instantly
With the major and ongoing controversy of the legalization of marijuana, medical marijuana has been thrown into the limelight as an excuse as to why marijuana is “good.” But with medical marijuana’s supposed advancements, more and more doctors are prescribing it to anyone who claims to have a headache and now they are moving their clientele base to young children and teens who are not even old enough to know the long-term damage of the “medicine” their doctors are so willingly prescribing. While many doctors are beginning to jump on the medical weed train, others are continuing to speak against the effects; especially on minors. In order to prevent permanent damage to the young children, medical marijuana needs to be outlawed for anyone under the age of 18.
In “Why I changed my Mind on Weed” he mentions a three year old girl by the name of Charlotte Figi He says that medicinal marijuana has limited the her seizures from 300 per week to two or three per month. Dr. Gupta is trying to evoke an emotional response from the audience by saying how medical pot has helped a young girl get better. He elicits sympathy by mentioning that in 1970 the Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Roger Egeberg, wrote a letter recommending marijuana to be classified as a schedule 1 substance because there was not enough information on the plant. That recommendation has stayed the same for 45 years
The involvement in helping children who have disabilities related to epilepsy has certainly grown as more information is received. Epilepsy can interfere with sleeping patterns, learning, attention, memory, concentration, emotional development, language development, and speech. Information regarding stimuli and electrical discharges that cause seizures are known to disturb connections between nerve cells which are essential to normal brain functions. Certain types of seizures may also harm development if they interrupt daily activities that are necessary in the learning standpoint. These functions are altered away from how they would be in a “normal person” who may cause emotional development issues especially if someone who does not have epilepsy is uneducated and makes fun of someone with epilepsy. Due to the increase in epilepsy awareness, people are definitely giving epilepsy a positive vibe and helping out in more ways to kick start child development that was pushed to the side before.
There are many other uses for medical cannabis including treating symptoms of IBS, Chron’s disease and other gastrointestinal disorders, pain relief from cancer and multiple sclerosis, the prevention of Alzheimer’s and helping individuals suffering from ADD, seizures or Tourette’s. Unfortunately, the federal government fails to see the many benefits of cannabis and clear proof shown in the countless peer-reviewed studies done through the years and instead maintains its classification as one of the most dangerous drugs with no acceptable medical benefits. More and more states are taking steps to regain their rightful authority from an over-reaching federal government, and taking the necessary steps to offer relief to many patients suffering from a wide array of maladies.
2. Discuss what is means if the patient is diagnosed with epilepsy? What are some of the different types?