Epilepsy and other related diseases impact a stunning 5.1 million individuals in the United States alone. The disease, which includes unpredictable, involuntary seizures, makes life difficult for those affected. Unfortunately, traditional medicine is only successful in treating roughly two-thirds of patients.
Other patients now have an alternative answer, and it may be coming to them in the form of cannabis-based medications, which have been showing greater medical potential as more studies are conducted. Cannabis-based medical treatments have shown to be effective when it comes to combating epilepsy and other related diseases in children. Marijuana treatment for seizures is certainly still a new idea, but more and more studies are being conducted, and with each one, the treatment’s legitimacy continues to gain traction.
While a prescription of medical marijuana for seizures might not seem like the most obvious course of action, studies have been showing that liquid forms of cannabis are effective when it comes to the treatment of diseases like epilepsy.
Studies involving children have been conducted with a solution called cannabidiol. This liquid form of cannabis doesn’t contain THC, the compound responsible for getting an individual “high.” With this effect omitted, cannabidiol has been administered to children with epilepsy in controlled environments and has been shown to reduce seizures at a very promising rate of 53%. Out of all the subjects involved in the study (who ranged from ages 2 to 42), 10% of them were unable to complete it due to side effects. The remaining subjects were administered a daily oral dose of cannabidiol to see if it could help combat the effects of severe seizure-inducing diseases.
The results of this study are promising, and as the medical community (and the public at large) become more comfortable with recreational marijuana in addition to medicinal marijuana, we will undoubtedly be able to explore further alternative treatments. Additional study into the relationship between cannabidiol and seizure relief is necessary, but medical professionals agree that at this stage, the early results are promising: marijuana treatment for seizures might very well be a solution to a problem that has plagued doctors and patients alike for a very long time.
