Marijuana.com

Originally Posted by Bellatrix

Pot-like Drugs Worsened Seizures in Lab Rats

Sheryl Ubelacker | Canadian Press | August 10, 2004

TORONTO (CP) - Some people who use marijuana to try to control their epilepsy could actually risk making their seizures worse - if research showing the drug's effects on laboratory rats is any indication.

Bellatrix; I can't believe this kind of garbage passes for science. These so called "scientists" actually used a synthetic copy of THC, NOT the actual stuff. This kind of manipulation is so cheap it makes me ill.

I Cant believe that some people's "pot is a panacea that has abslutely no instances where it may not be an apropriate treatment" attitude causes them to dimiss ANY science that doesnt automatically laud marijuana as the wonder drug that cures all ills. "SOME people... COULD risk... IF research.. " for those of us who deal with siezures--ANY research can be of assistance.

Scientists at the University of Saskatchewan have found that although a synthetic version of pot's active ingredient can suppress grand-mal seizures in lab rats, in some cases it may intensify the most common cause of convulsions, those which originate in the front of the brain.

Some people who can't tolerate the side-effects associated with standard medications to treat epilepsy - from headaches and nausea to drowsiness and cognitive dysfunction - turn to marijuana or synthetic forms of the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, THC, to reduce the severity of seizures.

Bellatrix; yes, this is what we've been saying the whole time - REAL marijuana is SAFER than the sythetic stuff! And here's the science to prove it! Whoo hoo!

And where is the REAL SCIENCE that proves REAL marijuana is safer than synthetic?

While previous studies had identified no adverse effects, new research led by Dr. Michael Corcoran at the University of Saskatchewan unexpectedly found that the pot compound can actually cause seizures in laboratory rats.

"What we found was contrary to our expectation in that although after a single injection there could be a suppression of seizure, when we gave the drug more than once to the rats over a period of days, their seizures actually got worse," Corcoran, a professor in the department of anatomy and cell biology, said Tuesday from Saskatoon.

Researchers are able to simulate epilepsy in rats through a process called kindling, in which tiny bursts of low-voltage current are administered over time. With repetition, the electrical discharge spreads from brain cell to brain cell, eventually creating a kind of firestorm of neural activity that resembles what occurs in human epilepsy.

Bellatrix; what?? That's disgusting! And this is considered a reasonable model for a human being with epilepsy? Gee, maybe getting electrucuted repeatedly had something to do with the degeneration of these animals? No, it was the evil marijuana-like compound that killed them!

Siezures are triggered by a cascading set of electrical impulses in the brain that somehow synchronize-- a TINY LOW voltage current that reproduces that situation is in fact the best simulation that can be achieved without the use of other drugs that would skew the research-- Its not perfect-- thats why the researcher highly qualifies the outcome of this research and does NOT claim that it is directly applicable to humans. and where on earth is there ANY mention of ANYTHING being killed much less what killed them???

Discovered in Canada by Graham Goddard at McGill University in the 1960s,
kindling works in a way similar to epilepsy and is one of the best models
for studying temporal lobe seizures.

"The brain is caught in a constant tug of war maintaining a balance between factors that excite electrical activity and those that restrict it," says Corcoran. So to protect itself, it relies on built-in systems that act as firewalls, limiting the spread of electrical activity. During a seizure, the firewalls crash and electrical discharges spread in
abnormal patterns to groups of neighboring cells, causing a storm of intense synchronized electrical activity that can manifest itself as convulsions. After two seizures, a person is diagnosed with epilepsy. Kindling is a simulation of that same kind of electrical firestorm. To induce kindling, Corcoran's team applies a low current (about 20
microamperes or one one-millionth of an amp) to a specific site in a rat's brain for about 120 milliseconds. With repetition, the electrical discharge spreads from cell to cell and the brain is permanently changed in a way that resembles epilepsy's electrical activity.

Corcoran's team found that kindling gets worse when rats are injected with high doses of the marijuana-like drug. The doses were high enough that the rats also ended up stoned: some were immobile, had changes in muscle tone and their ability to walk a beam - a measure of intoxication - was affected, he said.

The long-term goal of such research is to figure out how a certain drug might work in humans, said Corcoran, who has been working in epilepsy research for about 30 years.

"Ultimately, it's always an empirical question," he said. "Do the effects of a drug in a rat predict the effect of that drug in a human being? For drugs that are useful in treating epilepsy, that's generally been the case."

Those effects also depend on the type of seizure, he said. With those that originate in the brain stem, located between the brain and the spinal cord, cannabis-like compounds have been found to suppress convulsions.

But "what our work suggests is that seizures that originate in the forebrain, particularly in the temporal lobe, probably are not the best candidate type of epileptic seizures to be treating with marijuana-like drugs."

While it's difficult to calculate the human equivalent of the doses given to the rats - especially since street pot and reportedly even government-sanctioned medicinal marijuana can vary in strength from batch to batch - Corcoran said the study's findings should possibly give pause to some people using cannabis for epilepsy.

Bellatrix; what about marijuana-like compounds? Can we use those to treat epilepsy?
As I and any resonable person would interpret this research, its probably not the best idea if the type of epilepsy you have is the type that originates in the frontal lobe.
"If I were a clinician and I had the option of using marijuana to treat seizures, I'd want to make very sure what kind of seizure type the particular patient was displaying, because some seizures might benefit from these drugs, but others might get worse," he said.

And for those with epilepsy who want to use weed to self-medicate?

"I would say, 'Make sure you don't take whopping big doses and be sensitive to the kind of epilepsy you have.' "

Bellatrix; thanks for the advice, Doc. I couldn't find out very much about our Doc Corcoran; but I would be very interested to see who funded this study. He's been well trained by someone.

Originally Posted by WhatTheFawk

"Bellatrix; I can't believe this kind of garbage passes for science. These so called "scientists" actually used a synthetic copy of THC, NOT the actual stuff. This kind of manipulation is so cheap it makes me ill."

I'm not positive but, I think they use a synthetic copy of THC so they can be sure they are using the EXACT same amount of THC every single time. Otherwise this wouldn't be a scientific study at all. Also maybe the synthetic copy is what they plan to actually use in a pill or medicine one day, then it would be useless to use real THC in the experiment.

This is just a study IMHO.