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Cannabinoids causing seizures/myoclonus?

ChemicallyEnhanced

ChemicallyEnhanced

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I have smoked synthetic cannabinoids ("spice") three times - small amounts - and every time I had a full-on grand mal seizure.
Whenever I smoke weed I get myoclonus, widespread jerking of my whole body; seizure type actions without the actual seizure.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it common?

Cannabis oil has been shown in studies to be very effective in preventing epileptic fits, so why does it have the opposite effect on me?
 
Typically REAL marijuana should stop seizures, but obviously, everyone is different. Spice does cause seizures, however (thats one of the main side effects). I work for Fire/Rescue and cant tell you how many seizures ive responded to, caused by spice.

Marijuana acts as a muscle relaxant, an anticonvulsant and as a mild CNS depressant. In theory, it should stop all of those.

Id quit spice altogether and see if you still have it with real marijuana. Id wait a few days to make sure its out of your system though.

Are you taking any other drugs?
 
For about a week after I had one (literally just one failed 30 second burst) session of RTMS (repetitive transcrnial magnetic st8mulation) for depression, my seizure threshold was lowered and I had something similar to tardive dyskinesia (sp?) every ti e I smoked weed. It was dose dependent but totally disappeared after 1 week.

But yeah, it was small herky jerky movements.

Just a guess; but I'd say that your 3 time spice use has lowered your seizure threshold.

pm me if you want more info.

Tom
 
Synthetic cannabinoids represents a pretty large class of drugs that, to my knowledge, are still yet to be well understood and the various different interactions with the human body has yet to be closely studied. So the exact mechanism as the why it caused a seizure, and why it has since changed your experience with cannabis will likely be speculative at best. I think Thomas Davie might be on to something with his speculation.

I do not believe cannabis oil itself has been shown to be effective in treating epilepsy, as cannabis oil can consist of pretty varied cannabinoids and percentages of them. Plant genetics, cultivation environment, and extraction method all can have huge variations leading to very different end products.

The cannabis based medications that have been proven clinically effective in treating epilepsy are either pure CBD or CBD with THC, as it has been shown that the efficacy of CBD in treating seizures is greatly increased with the presence of THC. This means if you take CBD without THC, you'll need to take much higher doses for the same effect. Also, it is said CBD has a bell-shaped curve of effectiveness, meaning below and above a certain dose it is inactive or ineffective. Lastly, according to biologist Kevin McKernan, 15% of epilepsy patients got worse and some even died.

Cannabis itself can be fairly tricky, and has a pretty wide range of effects, some seemingly contradictive(relaxation and anxiety). There could be a lot at play, including psychological as well as physiological, and I can't really speculate much further.
 
I experience a similar thing with weed! I get really bad twitching, jerking, muscle spasms, etc. If I have enough, I've been told I look like I'm having a seizure because I'm shaking so uncontrollably. It's so frustrating because I've been trying to figure out WHY this is happening, but whenever I try to search about the shaking I get the same "cannabis is an anticonvulsant and muscle relaxant!".

It's also interesting because this doesn't happen to people usually, although my friend had a similar thing happen recently after smoking way too much- screaming at the top of his lungs and looking like he was seizing, really scary to watch. So maybe it's related to sensitivity, distribution of receptors, etc, and people who have myoclonus/seizures are just hypersensitive to weed. But then for a less sensitive person, they could (theoretically) experience the same thing with high doses. This could be completely wrong though so don't take my word, I'm still researching.

I'm curious, do you have a milder form of the myoclonus/jerking with caffeine? I noticed for me at least, if I have too much caffeine I don't necessarily get shaky like other people, but I get very twitchy and have really irritating muscle jerks/spasms- basically what I could call a very watered-down form of what I get from weed. Also makes me wonder if maybe the symptoms come from just CNS overstimulation in general- not sure about the exact mechanisms.
 
Chris42393 said:
Typically REAL marijuana should stop seizures, but obviously, everyone is different. Spice does cause seizures, however (thats one of the main side effects). I work for Fire/Rescue and cant tell you how many seizures ive responded to, caused by spice.

Marijuana acts as a muscle relaxant, an anticonvulsant and as a mild CNS depressant. In theory, it should stop all of those.

Id quit spice altogether and see if you still have it with real marijuana. Id wait a few days to make sure its out of your system though.

Are you taking any other drugs?
Click to expand...

I haven't tried spice in about 5 years due to the seizure thing. It's definitely only real weed I've had since then.
I do take other drugs but at the times I did weed I think I was just on alcohol and opiates.

In general I have done most drugs and never had a problem with anything else (barbiturates, benzo's, opiates, amphetamines, GHB, cocaine etc)
 
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cmustelin said:
I experience a similar thing with weed! I get really bad twitching, jerking, muscle spasms, etc. If I have enough, I've been told I look like I'm having a seizure because I'm shaking so uncontrollably. It's so frustrating because I've been trying to figure out WHY this is happening, but whenever I try to search about the shaking I get the same "cannabis is an anticonvulsant and muscle relaxant!".

It's also interesting because this doesn't happen to people usually, although my friend had a similar thing happen recently after smoking way too much- screaming at the top of his lungs and looking like he was seizing, really scary to watch. So maybe it's related to sensitivity, distribution of receptors, etc, and people who have myoclonus/seizures are just hypersensitive to weed. But then for a less sensitive person, they could (theoretically) experience the same thing with high doses. This could be completely wrong though so don't take my word, I'm still researching.

I'm curious, do you have a milder form of the myoclonus/jerking with caffeine? I noticed for me at least, if I have too much caffeine I don't necessarily get shaky like other people, but I get very twitchy and have really irritating muscle jerks/spasms- basically what I could call a very watered-down form of what I get from weed. Also makes me wonder if maybe the symptoms come from just CNS overstimulation in general- not sure about the exact mechanisms.
Click to expand...

At least there are other people out there it happens to! I might ask my doctor next time I see him, see if he has a theory.
No, I don't get it from caffeine or any other stimulants (amphetamine, 3-FPM, cocaine, meth, ephedrine).
 
ChemicallyEnhanced said:
I haven't tried spice in about 5 years due to the seizure thing. It's definitely only real weed I've had since then.
I do take other drugs but at the times I did weed I think I was just on alcohol and opiates.

In general I have done most drugs and never had a problem with anything else (barbiturates, benzo's, opiates, amphetamines, GHB, cocaine etc)
Click to expand...
Is this with ALL weed? Certain pesticides can causes seizures as well. Marijuana is supposed to decrease CNS activity decreasing seizures and has muscle relaxing properties too. Do you smoke a shit ton of weed when it happens? or just a few tokes? Im doing my best to think of a reason (im in the medical field too, not a doctor though).

Obviously, everyone is different and we all have different reactions to things, but this is weird lol

Have you tried taking a pure CBD strain (or CBD oil) before smoking 'regular' weed?

Have you ever had a seizure when not consuming?
 
Chris42393 said:
Is this with ALL weed? Certain pesticides can causes seizures as well. Marijuana is supposed to decrease CNS activity decreasing seizures and has muscle relaxing properties too. Do you smoke a shit ton of weed when it happens? or just a few tokes? Im doing my best to think of a reason (im in the medical field too, not a doctor though).

Obviously, everyone is different and we all have different reactions to things, but this is weird lol

Have you tried taking a pure CBD strain (or CBD oil) before smoking 'regular' weed?

Have you ever had a seizure when not consuming?
Click to expand...

I have had seizures before but only from severe alcohol withdrawal. 3 years sober now, though.
No, this was from literally two or three tokes, and not big ones at that. All three times were different strains of weed from different people.
 
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