Epilepsy News

Seizure action plans: Management and educational tools in epilepsy care - Historically, seizure action plans have focused on certain high-risk groups—such as people with drug-resistant epilepsy and people with a history of status epilepticus or seizure clusters. Neurology ...

Intermountain Health doctors perform 100th surgery using brain implants to improve epilepsy symptoms - Intermountain Health neurologists are celebrating a major surgical milestone: the 100th use of an implantable device that reduces seizure activity in patients with focal ...

New genetic switch could improve gene therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy - Epilepsy affects more than 50 million people worldwide, making it one of the most common neurological disorders. Although medication helps many patients achieve seizure control, approximately ...

Seizure Burden in Resistant Epilepsy May Ease With the Tincture of Time - Nearly 70% of patients with focal treatment-resistant epilepsy (FTRE) experience fewer seizures over time, new results of a multicenter study showed. However, the improvements occurred independent of ...

New tools map seizures in the brain, improve epilepsy treatment - Two new models could solve a problem that's long frustrated millions of people with epilepsy and the doctors who treat them: how to find precisely where seizures originate to treat exactly that part ...

Teacher Who Was Filmed Having a Seizure During Class Shares How She Navigates Epilepsy as an Educator (Exclusive) - Yareli Jessica Gijon experienced her first seizure at age 12 and was later diagnosed with epilepsy after years of uncertainty She has learned to manage her condition while teaching by recognizing ...

Analysis of Risk Factors Affecting Epilepsy Seizure Frequency with Statistical Models - CONCLUSION: While our study found that stress, sleep deprivation, fasting/prolonged hunger, and excessive physical activity may increase seizure frequency, it was also determined that some additional, unidentified environmental or genetic factors affect seizure frequency. The limited sample size, heterogeneity of the patient population, and reliance on patients' subjective assessments constitut...

Clozapine-Associated Generalized Seizure at Therapeutic Dose Without Prior Epilepsy: A Case Report - CONCLUSION: Clozapine may precipitate seizures at therapeutic doses in patients with latent epileptiform susceptibility. When therapeutic drug monitoring is unavailable, careful clinical assessment, EEG evaluation, and exclusion of alternative causes are essential. Dose reduction with anticonvulsant therapy may permit safe continuation of clozapine.

Ethnopharmacological relevance of Chinese medicinal materials and natural products in epilepsy: a critical multi-target review integrating neurons, glia and inflammatory signaling - Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures, substantial comorbidity, and persistent pharmacoresistance in approximately one-third of affected patients. Chinese medicinal materials, including botanical drugs, selected animal-derived medicinal materials, extracts, and defined natural metabolites, have long been used as adjunctive approaches for seiz...

Nucleus-specific thalamic involvement in seizure networks differentiates neuromodulation outcomes - Closed-loop neuromodulation via responsive neurostimulation (RNS) of the thalamus has emerged as a promising therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), particularly in patients with broad or multifocal onset. However, response to thalamic RNS is inconsistent, and there is a crucial need to identify factors that distinguish responders from non-responders. Given the heterogeneous composition of t...

Developing a Specialized Dravet Syndrome Ontology for Rare Disease Informatics and AI Applications - Dravet syndrome (DS) is a severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy whose clinical and research representation requires integration of heterogeneous knowledge spanning seizures, development, behavior, SUDEP/autonomic risk, genetics, comorbidities, electrophysiology, pharmacology, and drug responsiveness. We report the development of a DS-focused ontology created by expert-guided special...

Monogenic epilepsies exhibit distinct sleep endophenotypes - Monogenic epilepsies are 1.6 times more likely to be treatment-resistant compared to other epilepsies, emphasizing the need for additional therapeutic strategies. Sleep dysfunction beyond sleep-related breathing disorders is common yet insufficiently characterized and treated in monogenic epilepsies. We therefore sought to study sleep phenotypes across these epilepsies, examine associations wit...

Brain signal irregularity may provide clues to understanding epileptic process - Researchers propose a new method to differentiate signals from the epileptic focus from those recorded in other parts of the brain without the presence of an epileptic seizure. This technique may help detect epilepsy-induced features from these signals much quicker than conventional analysis techniques.

Breakthrough tech enables seizure localization in minutes - New research introduces a novel network analysis technology that uses minimally invasive resting state electrophysiological recordings to localize seizure onset brain regions and predict seizure outcomes in just 10 minutes.

Antidepressant use during pregnancy not linked to epilepsy in children - A new study suggests that antidepressant use by mothers during the first trimester of pregnancy does not increase the chances of epilepsy and seizures in babies.