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Epilepsy and marijuana
Sat, 02/05/2005 - 12:32Topic: Complementary Therapies
Hi all, I was wondering whether or not the effects of pot on the brain can intefere with the effects of the epilepsy medicine Tegretol 400mg per day. I know grapefruit and alcohol have adverse effects on the drug's treatments and can lead to uncontrollabe seizure possibilities in some cases. However, in the case of weed I do not not if it does have any interference or not. So if anyone could help me here I would appreciate it. Thanks.Chris
Comments
Re: Re: Re: Epilepsy and marijuana
Submitted by gttickle on Wed, 2007-03-14 - 13:40
i agree. i have had epilepsy almost as long as ive been smoking weed and it has saved my hide many times. i am currently on depakote and i am weaning off dilantin while getting on zonegran. one stupid thing that i have done and did just last week that i swear i will never do again is i did speed and i ended up having a seizure sunday night. now i know the only thing safe for me to do is just pot.not booze,speed,or even cigs.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Epilepsy and marijuana
Submitted by Nigma on Fri, 2007-04-06 - 15:00
I've been on lamictal for about a year (when I started having seizures. We think) and it's offered adequate seizure control, perfect control when I don't drink, but that's the problem. I just love to be inebriated on one thing or another, and since alcohol is epileptogenic, I figured I should get off the booze and switch to something less grand mal seizure-inducing. So I spent the entire contents of my wallet, $170, on buying some pot from a classmate of mine, a cool guy with tourettes syndrome. Well, I've been smoking it for four days straight and I can't feel any of the positive effects described, just dizziness, disorientation, a bit of the old aphasia, and drowsiness. I figure this lack of enjoyable effects is probably the lamictal's fault. Anyone else have every iota of enjoyability stripped from canabis by lamictal? Or is it not the lamictal that's doing it? I'm having difficulty getting straight answers about that.
Re: Re: Epilepsy and marijuana
Submitted by sdfreeh on Wed, 2007-02-07 - 11:36
Hi cjad, It is funny that you ask about pot and how seizure meds. react to it. I do smoke on occasion and never found any problems with it. I even asked my dr. if that had any affect on having seizures or creating any conflict with my medications. He said no, unless you forget to take the meds because you are so high. I am on 4 different medications and it hasn't bothered me while on any meds. I even asked my dr. about other drugs that I have tried prior to finding out that I have epilepsy. I asked if maybe those drugs caused my epilepsy and he said not at all. Mine was caused by a head injury, not drugs. I have no side effects when I do smoke pot, except the munchies. I did have a temporal lobectomy to get rid of the seizures and my head hurt for the 2 weeks I was out of town healing from the surgery. No pain reliever helped to get rid of the headache, which was caused by the way I had to sleep, not because of the actual surgery itself. Vicoden didn't even help. When I did get home I smoked a joint, and I swear, my headache went away so fast. No lie. So pot is good for something despite what other's may believe. I say that if the dr. says it won't bother the meds and if it makes you feel better overall, fire it up!