Did you know that there are different types of seizures? Our initial impression of someone who is having a seizure is an individual going into convulsions. And divided into major groups, there are different types of seizures that vary depending upon where they originate within the brain.
- Grand Mal Seizures:
Chances are you’re probably most familiar with the Grand Mal seizure. The most characteristically identifiable, they are associated with the body stiffening, shaking, jerking and lasting for up to three minutes in length with a loss of consciousness. With a seizure of this magnitude, it causes the patient to either bite their tongue or inside of their cheeks.
- Myoclonic Seizures:
With this type of seizure, the patient appears to be “hit by lightning.” They are described as an “infantile spasm” when they occur in young children.
- Atonic Seizures:
This seizure lasts roughly 15 seconds or so and causes the muscles throughout the body to suddenly go limp. If the sufferer is holding something (such as a glass), they may drop it or they may fall down. Because of the risk of falling, it is highly recommended that the patient wear a helmet.
- Absence (“petit mal”) Seizures:
This type causes the patient to “blank” or “zone out. Often they won’t be aware that they are having an episode. Lasting for a short period – 10 seconds or so – the patient will quickly recover. An identifying trait is that the patient’s eyelids will flutter. They may even smack their lips or make a chewing movement with their mouth.
Research has explored potential links between smoking marijuana and seizures. Hence we posit can marijuana cause someone to have seizures? Or can marijuana actually help them? Often confused with a convulsion, a seizure occurs when someone has abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
Someone who is having a convulsion will have uncontrollable shaking as muscles continuously contract and relax. In some people, seizures can be difficult to identify. With some seizures, they may go totally unnoticed, whereas others are more obvious. But again, it all depends upon what areas of the brain are affected. From ongoing research, apparently marijuana may surprisingly help people with seizures. With individuals who participate in stimulant drug use, those types of drugs will cause seizures. However, marijuana could contribute to providing some measure of relief for people living with seizures based on relatively new research. It was a widely held belief that the non-psychoactive component of marijuana, cannabidiol, was proving to be helping in reducing the symptoms of epilepsy.
Recent research has highlighted that cannabidiol might be an effective anti-seizure agent. Information gathered by clinicians in ongoing research showed that with additional studies, there could be potentially beneficial links between marijuana and seizures. In fact, it was shown that there were unique advantages of using marijuana and seizures in relationship to one another.
Of the participants examined, there was at least some level of seizure reduction seen with the use of medical cannabis, and in some patients, seizures were completely in remission. So to summarize, while initial studies have shown potential and do look extremely positive and promising, further ongoing continued research must be conducted to say definitely that marijuana doesn’t cause seizures but can help in its treatment.
