We started to explore marijuana, CBD, and THC for seizures when we heard about Charlotte’s story. Charlotte has Dravet syndrome, febrile, and afebrile status epilepticus. She was having 50 generalized tonic clonic seizures a day. She was also on 8 anticonvulsant medications.
Dravet Syndrome is a severe form of intractable epilepsy and it usually starts before the age of 1. Intractable means the seizures are not controlled by medication.
When Charlotte was 5 years old, she had significant cognitive and motor delays. She required a feeding tube and needed much more care. Charlotte’s family was desperately seeking help. They looked into the benefits of CBD.
They started to test a type of marijuana that was high in CBD and low in THC. Her parents began giving Charlotte low doses of plant extract and started to increase the dose over time.
Charlotte’s results:
- Month 3; >90% reduction in generalized tonic- clonic seizures and weaned from other AEDs.
- Month 20: 2-3 nocturnal generalized tonic clonic seizures per month and feeds and drinks by herself and autistic behaviors have improvement, walking and talking.
You can see how Charlotte is doing with help from The Stanley Brothers.
Why does CBD have to make things so complicated?
Marijuana is a Schedule I compound with known risks. There is current research on marijuana that demonstrates that it can be safe and effective in the treatment of medical disorders. The FDA has an active program to assist drug developers who want to test marijuana through controlled clinical trials, to demonstrate the potential for safe and effective uses.
Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in the development of therapies with marijuana and its components. Advocates for “medical marijuana” spoke up about its uses for some medical conditions, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety – just to name a few. The FDA has been supportive of research in this area.
Currently, the FDA approved a purified form of the drug cannabidiol (CBD). This is one of more than 80 active chemicals in marijuana. The new product, EPIDIOLEX, by Greenwich Biosciences, was approved to treat seizures associated with two rare, severe forms of epilepsy in patients two years of age and older.
Greenwich Biosciences is the first and only company to receive FDA approval for a plant-derived cannabinoid therapy that addresses treating severe conditions. This is the approval of one specific CBD medication for a specific use. This does not mean marijuana is approved for all medical conditions. However, Greenwich were involved in clinical trails on evaluating marijuana use. This is how sound medical science is advancing.
If you want to learn more about the science of cannabinoids: Click here.
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