NEWS
Study finds prevalence of depression and anxiety in individuals with epilepsy
An analysis of published studies found that in individuals with epilepsy, there is a 20.2% prevalence of anxiety disorders and a 22.9% prevalence of depression. Investigators also found no differences in the prevalence of either depression or anxiety based on the...
Antidepressant may enhance drug delivery to the brain
New research from the National Institutes of Health found that pairing the antidepressant amitriptyline with drugs designed to treat central nervous system diseases, enhances drug delivery to the brain by inhibiting the blood-brain barrier in rats. The blood-brain...
Pinpointing where seizures are coming from, by looking between the seizures
A computational approach developed at Boston Children's Hospital, described in the journal Neurosurgery, published online May 2, 2017, could enable more patients with epilepsy to benefit from surgery when medications do not help. The approach streamlines the seizure...
‘Silent Seizures’ Discovered in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
AlDeep in the brains of two patients with Alzheimer's disease, the main memory structure, the hippocampus, displays episodic seizure-like electrical activity. These non-convulsive hippocampal seizures are the first signs of 'silent' brain electrical network...
Sudden Deaths in Epilepsy May be Cardiac Disease
It is a little appreciated fact that about 10-20 percent of individuals who are told they have a seizure disorder and who are taking anticonvulsants actually never had epilepsy. Rather, the cause of their syncope was an intermittent cardiovascular event such as a...
Man’s best friend: Evolutionary history of dogs could shed light on cancer, epilepsy in both species
An evolutionary tree of more than 161 dog breeds has been mapped out by geneticists, showing which types are closely related to each other. The research will be of obvious interest to dog owners but it is hoped it will shed light on the causes of diseases that affect...
Autism linked to many other health issues
Autism spectrum disorder affects 1 in 68 children in the U.S. Challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communications are some of the issues people with autism may experience. But what many don’t know is that those with autism often...
If your grandmother smoked, you may be more likely to develop autism
A recent study, published in Scientific Reports, concludes that if a girl's maternal grandmother smoked tobacco during her pregnancy, she is significantly more likely to develop autistic traits. Could smoking increase the risk of your grandchildren displaying...
New analysis of brain network activity offers unique insight into epileptic seizures
Epilepsy is a complex neurological disorder that afflicts approximately 50 million people worldwide. Although this disease has been known to exist for centuries, the exact mechanism of its cardinal symptom, the epileptic seizure, remains poorly understood. In fact,...
‘Minibrains’ In A Dish Shed A Little Light On Autism And Epilepsy
Tiny, 3-D clusters of human brain cells grown in a petri dish are providing hints about the origins of disorders like autism and epilepsy. An experiment using these cell clusters — which are only about the size of the head of a pin — found that a genetic mutation...
Could a Zap to the Brain Jog Failing Memory?
Deep brain stimulation appears to help, but much more research is needed, scientists say! Can a slight charge of electricity improve an ailing memory? Maybe, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania. Timed correctly, deep brain stimulation can...
Orphan Drug Designation From the U.S. FDA for EPX-100 and EPX-200 in the Treatment of Patients With Dravet Syndrome
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to EPX-100 and EPX-200 for the treatment of patients with Dravet syndrome. Dravet Syndrome qualifies as a rare pediatric disease under Section 529 of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The rare,...
Youth with uncomplicated epilepsy have favorable social outcomes as their siblings
A 15-year follow-up study of young adults with epilepsy found that those with uncomplicated epilepsy who were seizure-free for five years or more did as well as their siblings without epilepsy in measures of education, employment, family arrangements and driving...
New Guideline Published on Uncommon Risk of Death in Epilepsy American Academy of Neurology
There is an uncommon risk of death that people with epilepsy and their loved ones may not know about. The risk is called sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. Now the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society have co-developed a...
How to Choose a Medical Alert System
As technology advances, the range of options has grown! I have had many caregivers, parents and loved ones, ask me over the years what kind of Medical Alert/Monitoring Systems are there for someone with epilepsy. Yes, some do work for a person with epilepsy. There...
Cannabis compound may halve seizures for patients with severe epilepsy
For individuals with a severe form of epilepsy, a new study finds that the occurrence of seizures could be significantly reduced with a daily dose of cannabidiol - a chemical component of cannabis. Researchers say that cannabidiol - an active chemical in cannabis -...
French regulator says up to 4,100 children victims of epilepsy drug
PARIS (Reuters) - An estimated 2,150 to 4,100 children in France suffered a major malformation in the womb between 1967 and 2016 after their mothers took a treatment against epilepsy and bipolar disorders known as valproate, France's drug regulator said on Thursday....
Cannabidiol May Reduce Seizures by Half in Hard-to-treat Epilepsy
Promising results from a large-scale, controlled, Phase 3 clinical study of epilepsy patients being treated with cannabidiol will be presented next week at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in Boston on April 25. GW Pharmaceuticals’ liquid oral...
Epilepsy: Another potential Zika threat to babies
Beyond its known links to birth defects and other problems, the Zika virus may also trigger cases of epilepsy in infants, warn experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 48 babies from Brazil with probable congenital Zika infection, "50...
Study finds genetic basis for drug response in childhood absence epilepsy
Consider two children who have childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), the most common form of pediatric epilepsy. They both take the same drug—one child sees an improvement in their seizures, but the other does not. A new study in the Annals of Neurology identified the...
