Patients with Epilepsy in Australia are Turning to Medical Cannabis
A nationwide survey indicates that scores of Australian epilepsy patients are resorting to medical cannabis in order to manage seizures. The study was published in the medical journal Epilepsy & Behaviour. The Epilepsy Action Australia study could help fuel the medical cannabis movement in Australia by filling the void of systematic clinical studies that are needed in order to move forward.
976 men and women were surveyed about the favorable effects from treating epilepsy with medical cannabis. 14 percent of respondents (15 percent adults and 13 percent children) with epilepsy said that they had used cannabis products to manage their condition. Of the people that had used cannabis, 90 percent of adults and 71 percent of children reported success in managing the symptoms of epilepsy. Most respondents said the main reason for switching to cannabis was to manage treatment-resistant epilepsy and to experience less adverse side effects.
Anastatsia Suraev is a researcher at the Lambert Initiative and lead author of the study. “This survey provides insight into the use of cannabis products for epilepsy, in particular some of the likely factors influencing use, as well as novel insights into the experiences of and attitudes towards medicinal cannabis in people with epilepsy in the Australian community,” Suraev stated. “Despite the limitations of a retrospective online survey, we cannot ignore that a significant proportion of adults and children with epilepsy are using cannabis-based products in Australia, and many are self-reporting considerable benefits to their condition.”
The study was part of a partnership with the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative, which was launched and named after Katelyn Lambert, an epileptic child patient who had seen dramatic success from medical cannabis. In 2015, Katelyn, then three years old, went from suffering from up to 1,400 seizures per day to only a few per month. The epilepsy study helps fulfill the goals that the Lambert Initiative set out to accomplish two years ago.
