Epilepsy Blog Relay—Thoughts on CBD (Medical Marijuana)

This post is part of the Epilepsy Blogger Relay™ which will run from November 1^st through November 30^th.

I am a difficult epilepsy patient. My seizures are not under control. I am thankful that I do not have tonic clonic (grand mal) seizures, and that usually they are short and not too bothersome. However, once in a while, I do get complex partial seizures and lose consciousness. These are the ones that irritate me the most.

I have tried a whole number of cocktails of medications—you name it, I’ve probably taken it, or am taking it (or some relative to it). Currently, I am on four antiepileptic drugs. I have also tried acupuncture and have the vagus nerve stimulator (VNS). Still, none of these completely controls my seizures. But I know for a fact that if I didn’t take these medications, my life would be a whole lot worse.

Now, I am trying CBD, cannabidiol, one form of medical marijuana. I never thought in my entire life that I would be taking CBD. I thought it was just for Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, both found in children only. Also, the lack of research on CBD made me very wary of considering it. The fact that marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 substance is very frustrating to the epilepsy community, and the medical community at-large, because that means that there are strict restrictions on how much and in what types of circumstances research can be done.

Many doctors are reluctant to suggest CBD as a treatment option to their patients because of the unknown factors, especially because of the lack of empirical data. In particular, there has been a lack of double-blind studies.  Additionally, we don’t know all the long-term effects of CBD. Some side effects we do know of are similar to antiepileptic drugs—sleepiness, diarrhea, light-headedness, dizziness, changes in appetite/weight, dry mouth, low blood pressure.

Over time, my opinion of CBD as a treatment has changed. I used to think that since we didn’t know enough about it, it was off limits. It works much differently from medications. However, there is much we don’t know about medications either. Also, although drugs go through rigorous testing, there are still the side effects that exist. And are those side effects any better or worse than those of CBD? Who is to say? Also, if the CBD will possibly help the seizures, why not try it?

So, here I am, almost two months on CBD. So far, I haven’t seen any change but perhaps it will take more time and adjusting of the dosage. Or, on the other hand, this may not work out for me. In any case, I will have been open to and tried another option.

References

http://advocacy.epilepsy.com/medical-cannabis

https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1439-cannabidiol.aspx?activeingredientid=1439&activeingredientname=cannabidiol

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5569602/

NEXT UP: Be sure to check out the next post tomorrow by Irene Farsatis at https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com. For the full schedule of bloggers visit https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com.

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