By Karla Sullivan
The seizures began at a young age and continued as he entered adulthood, resulting in cognitive deficiencies and life long challenges. Special diets, therapy and nerve stimulation, change in medications, and other clinical treatments were prescribed to him, but regardless, the disturbances in brain activity did not subside.
About 326,000 American children under the age of 15 have epilepsy and 200,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed each year, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. Sixty five million around the world have epilepsy and one in 26 people will develop epilepsy at some point in their lifetime.
Epilepsy is a seizure disorder that can be related to a brain injury but the often times the cause is unknown. Some seizures can be hardly noticed while others are disabling.
Currently, this young man is at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL as the epilepsy team determines the next step to take for this patient.
Over the last 10 years, Rush has been successful with temporal lobe epilepsy surgery in which patients have become seizure free. Some evidence also suggests that marijuana may be helpful in controlling seizures when they are not responsive to other type of treatments.
According to the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, the Illinois House passed SB 2636, the medical marijuana law adding epilepsy as a debilitating medical condition, by a vote of 98-18 on May 21, 2014.
This amendment includes epilepsy as one of the conditions for which medical marijuana may be prescribed, and that pediatric intractable cases of epilepsy may be permitted to use cannabis oil in the treatment of childhood seizures.
The amendment was passed by the Illinois Senate with a vote of 49-5 on April 2, 2014.
Illinois has a law that lists 35 conditions for which medical marijuana may be prescribed. Unlike 18 of the other 20 states that permit the use of medical marijuana, epilepsy is not included in the conditions for which marijuana may be prescribed under Illinois law.
The Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago supports further research into the effect of marijuana on epilepsy as well as all other conditions enumerated in the Illinois law.
Given that Illinois has a medical marijuana law and given the in vitro and in vivo evidence of the impact cannabidiol (“CBD”) can have on seizures as well as the anecdotal human evidence, the Foundation believes that it is appropriate to allow patients, parents and physicians the ability to determine collectively if the compassionate use of medical marijuana is reasonable in each individual case, including intractable pediatric cases. This position is consistent with that taken by the National Epilepsy Foundation and members of their Professional Advisory Board, including Nathan Fountain and Orrin Devinsky.
It is important to note that for epilepsy, the useful form of marijuana is oil; it is not smoked. Furthermore, it is high in CBD and low in THC, which is the hallucinogenic component of marijuana. Accordingly, there is no alternative recreational use for this form of marijuana; it is formulated to treat seizures.
Over 130,000 people in the greater Chicago land area live with epilepsy, a neurological condition that includes ongoing seizures. More than 40,000 of these people live with uncontrolled seizures. People living with uncontrolled seizures live with the continual risk of serious injury and loss of life.
The Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago believes that Illinois residents suffering from seizures should be afforded the same benefits available to those suffering from any of the 35 conditions included in the Illinois Medical Marijuana Law. Illinois families shouldn’t have to be split up and move out of state in order to gain access to viable treatment for intractable seizures.
Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago offers opportunities in the local communities to make a difference; getting the support that is needed for those who suffer. You can learn about health insurance options through the foundation so that those who have been diagnosed can get healthcare services available.
To learn more about the foundation, you can attend a free picnic lunch at the Blue Star Memorial Woods in Glenview on August 16th. If an avid golfer and would like to donate to the event, you can register for the 14th Annual Epilepsy Foundation Tee Off for Camp Blackhawk, which takes place on August 25th.
