These articles review the NINDS Epilepsy Benchmarks, examining progress made in epilepsy research and identifying priorities for the next phases of research.
Doing routine monitoring of drug levels of the newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) may not lead to better seizure control or treatment tolerance for patients with epilepsy, according to a randomized trial from Switzerland.
Pediatric Epilepsy
Using human nerve cells and three-dimensional “mini brains,” researchers have found that dysfunctional potassium channels may underlay the development of seizures associated with Angelman syndrome.
This study is the first to demonstrate that a particular feature of epilepsy—namely the desynchronization of interneuronal populations in the hippocampus—causes deficits in spatial information coding.
These findings suggest that ineffective AEDs should be replaced, rather than introducing additional AEDs to a treatment regimen.
Plus, have your voice be heard and help set the epilepsy research priorities in 2020.
Significant associations were found between ineffective medication and feelings of stigma or embarrassment about epilepsy with perceived prescribing errors.
SUDEP
A 15-fold risk was observed in correlation with the presence of nocturnal GTCS during the last year of observation.