Monday, February 9, 2015

On epilepsy, Wikipedia misinforms

Medicinal cannabis oil
While Google-researching an article I'm working on, I came across these statements at Wikipedia's Epilepsy entry. Under the category Causes - Acquired:
"Getting vaccinated does not increase the risk of epilepsy."
Whoever wrote that was either ignorant or dismissive of the article published in Pediatrics entitled "Etiologies for Seizures Around the Time of Vaccination". It  gives the lie to that claim in no uncertain terms.

The medical data of 990 children with seizures after vaccination in the first 2 years of life, reported to the National Institute for Public Health and Environment in the Netherlands in 1997 through 2006, were reviewed. Blogger Elizabeth Aquino first circulated it and I then mentioned it a post.

And, in Wikipedia again, under "Alternative medicine":
"The use of cannabis is not supported by the evidence."
The cited source for that is from 2012. Since then, plenty of anecdotal evidence of cannabis' efficacy in controlling epilepsy has accumulated. Here for instance, and here. And more sound scientific research is underway: "Finally, Some Hard Science on Medical Marijuana for Epilepsy Patients", from September 2014 for instance.

I hope one of you will rise to the occasion and correct these errors. Wikipedia offers guidelines for corrections here.

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