Hallucinogens and Epilepsy

[NonPermissive]

I don't have epilepsy myself, and while I plan to wait until I've tried something before deciding whether to introduce friends to any experience (not mushroom season yet, and I still live at home and I'm not sure if I could pull off an extraction without awkward questions -- smells and jars in the freezer and such), I know a girl that has epilepsy and it got me thinking, would the visuals possibly trigger a seizure?

Google was little use to me on the subject, but I did see a correlation between methamphetamine and epileptic seizures, and a general concern that it would lower one's "seizure threshold," ie, the conditions under which one might have a seizure. Any ideas?

 

[Xt]

My friend has epilepsy, and she has tripped several times on LSD. She has also taken MDMA a couple of times. Pot many times and DMT twice.
This has never caused a seizure. But she aint everyone.

Id wait till you get more info.

 

[ragabr]

A friend had migraine attacks in the past that would sometimes lead to seizures. They started taking acid a few times a year and the migraines have stopped showing up. One of the big areas legal LSD research could start soon in is treating cluster headaches.

 

[NonPermissive]

Thanks guys. I'll continue my research and post what I find here.

 

[Tordyveln]

Have found any info on the subject yet?

 

[alkaline262]

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[alkaline262]

Some one mentioned pot smoking of epileptic people. I always thoguht this was interesting, because hashish has been used to treat the victims of epilepsy for hundreds of years CB1 agonists have been shown the express neuroprotective character under excessive neuronal activity-as in an epileptic seizure. Some scientists believe that this may be the role of arachidonylethanolamide, a fatty acid derived endogenous cannabinoid.Unfortunately media sources have wrongfully led people to believe that thc has neuroprotective capabilities under normal settings, which is unlikley to be true based on what we know.

A friend had migraine attacks in the past that would sometimes lead to seizures. They started taking acid a few times a year and the migraines have stopped showing up. One of the big areas legal LSD research could start soon in is treating cluster headaches.

Yes! this is an exciting area or research, although i believe lsd is almost useless as a medicine with it being psychoactive and all, but there are several halogenated ergoline medicines that show the same vasoconstictive properties held by lsd, which can be used to combat the swelling of cranial vessels that cause migraines.

 

[cellux]

Many clinical observations suggest that special caution is indicated in persons who have an epileptic disposition, especially those with a history of grand mal seizures. In these individuals LSD can occasionally trigger not only individual attacks but entire chains of seizures following each other in a rapid sequence. This so-called status epilepticus can be very difficult to control. However, certain forms of epilepsy and other types of seizure-like motor activity have responded favorably to LSD treatment in the past, and so this issue has to be considered individually for each case. This observation seems to be particularly true for temporal lobe epilepsy, though there is as yet no clear organic finding.

(from LSD Psychotherapy, page 164)

 

[gammagore]

I met a chap at a psyparty up in Como that was epileptic. He had informed us of his condition on our way to the party.

So day 2 of taking LSD and hard psy and he has a fit, my wife calls me to the chill area where he was chilling and I run over to see whats going on. Ive only ever seen this happen one time before to another guy(this time it was after taking massive amounts of MDMA) so I wasnt to sure on what to do. My wife and I try and calm the situation down and comfort him. He finaly comes out of it and we carry on party'ing. A year or so later I meet up with him at another event and we get chatting about it. He tells me he didnt know he had a fit that time and says it was prolly cos he didnt take him medication.

I would definately tread lightly when dealing with this type of combo(Hallucinogens and Epilepsy) and be prepared for any event. Get as much info as possible and maybe consult a doctor/GP?

 

[corpus callosum]

The conventional hallucinogens such as LSD/psilocybin/mescaline do not provoke seizures when used in 'normal' doses; others such as tropane alkaloids can certainly do so.

The other thing to bear in mind is that some people may have a lower threshold for throwing a fit and if this is lowered further by agents such as certain opioids, then taking a hallucinogen could conceiveably lead to a fit.