
CBD OIL AND EPILEPSY
2021-12-01CBD aliejus ir epilepsija
Children affected by Severe epilepsy may experience multiple, weekly, or even daily, seizures, despite the medical prescription. Parents of such children often worry for epilepsy becoming worse.
Patients and their families affected by epilepsy have managed to study cannabidiol and its positive effects on epilepsy. They turned to CBD oil retailers in the medical and online departments that sold unsafe and unknown-potency CBD products. Some stores do not contain the amount of CBD they claim to have. Products containing CBD may impose risks, such as liver damage, or negative interactions with other prescribed or monitored medications.
In 2018 June, the FDA approved the prescription of cannabidiol for the first time ever. The prescription is called “Epidiolex” and it’s known to mitigate seizures caused by epilepsy in patients two years of age and older. “Epidiolex” was founded by “GW Pharmacauticals” in Great Britain and its partner “Greenwich Biosciences” from the US.
Epidiolex is not a miracle: not everyone prescribed feels the effects.
However, others who have been prescribed Epidiolex experienced a reduction in seizures merely caused by epilepsy.
Orrin Devinsky, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry unit at NYU Grossman School of Medicine has led the research. He received financial support from “GW Pharmaceuticals” which reinforced the FDA-approved drug.
‘The approval of Epidiolex or cannabidiol is a medical landmark.’ says Devinsky. A plant that has been medically used for over 5,000 years. Finally, one compound was extracted from it which is now available to patients. This is the first time that such a drug, based on the cannabis plant, was approved. It may be effective in treating epilepsy.
Part of the novelty of CBD is that it affects the nervous system in a different way than any other anti-epileptic drug.
Although CBD’s effects are still not fully understood, Devinsky says: ‘We understand some of the ways in which it helps battle seizures within the receptor system that no other drug is capable of.’
Receptors located on the surface of each nerve cell receive signals from chemicals that are produced in the body called neurotransmitters. Seizures can occur when specific receptors called GPR55 are stimulated and lose their inhibition, Devinsky explains. ‘Unfortunately, when a seizure occurs, the number of receptors on these nerve cells increase,’ he says.
Cannabidiol blocks the GPR55 receptor. Therefore, Devisnky states: ‘in patients for whom this receptor is crucial in their epilepsy, CBD could potentially be very effective.”