Medicinal Cannabis - Update (1)

A mother who has travelled from her home in Cork to Dublin to campaign for greater access to cannabis-based medication has arrived at the Dáil.

Vera Twomey began her 260 km journey on foot, last Monday.
An injury to her knee meant she completed the final stages in a wheelchair.

Hundreds of supporters joined Vera Twomey outside Dáil Éireann
She wants her seven-year-old daughter Ava, who has a rare form of epilepsy, to be allowed access to medicinal cannabis.
The family's request for the medicines, under a special licence was rejected.
The Department of Health has said it is in the process of setting up a compassionate access programme.



She has been accompanied most of the way by PBP-AAA TD - Gino Kenny.

Medicinal Cannabis - Review

Simon Harris pledges to take action on Medicinal Cannabis

Minister makes promise to mother of child, with catastrophic form of epilepsy.



The Minister made the promise to Vera Twomey after she embarked on a walk from County Cork to Leinster House, in order to draw attention to this issue.
Her six year old daughter, Ava Barry, has a catastrophic form of epilepsy but is now almost seizure free after she started taking two doses of Cannabis Oil a day.
Ava suffers from Dravet Syndrome and needed around - the - clock care before she started taking Cannabidiol Oil earlier this month. Ms. Twomey is calling for a change to Irish law to allow for Cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes.

Cannabis for medicinal purposes is legal in a number of countries including The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Malta, Croatia and some US states. It is usually made available on prescription from doctors and supplied in a standardised form through pharmacies.
Mr. Harris said that the government had ordered a review of the Republic's policy on Medicinal Cannabis.

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Research into best models of palliative care

The project is one of two new projects that will look at how to best organise and deliver healthcare services in palliative care and epilepsy.

‘Each of these projects aims to provide solid evidence that will support the development of the best models of care in their respective areas’, says Graham Love, the Chief Executive of the HRB.  ‘Over the past few years, the HRB, HSE and Royal College of Physicians in Ireland have made a focussed, coordinated effort to increase the level of funding available for quality and patient safety research that addresses knowledge gaps of national priority. These two projects are the latest ones to come through that process’.  

According to Professor Charles Normand, Trinity College Dublin, who will be conducting detailed research into what are the best models of palliative care in an Irish context; 

‘We do not know enough about the extent to which better provision of palliative care takes pressure off other health and social care. Nor do we know enough about the effects of different models of palliative care on the burden on families and informal care givers.  There are a lot of important and as yet unanswered questions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of different models of care, the extent to which those that cost more achieve more, and the differences in experiences and outcomes.'

 Dr Mary Fitzsimons, from Beaumont Hospital will lead the project on patient-centred epilepsy care.

These latest awards will join two ongoing projects in Emergency medicine and Rheumatology care that have been funded under this partnership scheme, the RCQPS (the Research Collaboration on Quality andPatient Safety). To date over €1.5 million has been committed to research under this specific scheme.  

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International imaging effort unlocks brain secrets

Cortex and subcortical regions: The study looked at the size of sub-cortical brain regions that are involved in some basic functions such as memory, movement, learning and motivation.

 New insights may help scientists better understand disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy

An international study, which included researchers from NUI Galway, has identified significant genetic factors that influence the size of structures within the brain. It is hoped these new insights may help scientists better understand disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. The research was published today in Nature magazine.

NUI Galway professor of psychology, Professor Gary Donohoe, led the Irish contribution to the study, which involved a consortium of almost 300 scientists from 193 institutes - including NUI Galway. The consortium, known as the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis), shared results from analyses of genetic data and MRI scans from more than 30,000 individuals worldwide.

The study looked at the size of sub-cortical brain regions that are involved in some basic functions such as memory, movement, learning and motivation. Abnormalities in these brain regions are associated with neurological and mental health disorders.

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The article published in Nature today is ‘Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures’.

This research at NUI Galway was undertaken by the Cognitive Genetics and Therapy Group (Principal Investigators: Prof Gary Donohoe and Dr Derek Morris;http://www.nuigalway.ie/psychology/coggene_group.html) and the Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory (Principal Investigators: Prof Colm McDonald and Dr Dara Cannon;http://clinicalneuroimaginglaboratory.com/).

More information about the ENIGMA project is available at http://enigma.ini.usc.edu/