For parents who have decided to use cannabis for their children who suffer from seizures, Dr. Sulak wrote A Parent’s Guide to Pediatric Seizures and Cannabinoid Medicine to get help them started.

• Find a neurologist
• Find a cannabinoid medicine specialist (The Society of Cannabis Clinicians is a good resource for finding a provider)
• Only buy/use lab-tested cannabis preparations
• Keep accurate dosing records
• Start on a low dose and increase gradually over weeks

After getting started, parents often report improvements in their child’s ability to think and communicate, an emergence of their personalities, and an increased ability to learn new things, even before they reach a dose that reduces their seizure burden.  Cannabinoids can also improve behavioral symptoms in pediatric patients with neurologic conditions. While the ultimate goal with any anti-seizure medication is to reduce the patient’s seizure burden, improving quality of life by other measures, such as improvement in sleep, cognition and behavior, should be carefully considered.

This article written by Dr. Dustin Sulak was published by Leafly on February 6, 2018.

Content for this article is based on the Pediatric Seizures Video Guides at Healer.com, a medical cannabis patient education resource. Find the entire video series and transcripts at healer.com/pediatric-seizures-video-guide.

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