Pediatric Epilepsy
This issue of Epilepsy Research News highlights articles on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with epilepsy, Ketamine used as a treatment for neonatal, pediatric epilepsy, and more.
By assessing emotion processing circuits, recently published findings in Epilepsy & Behavior showed that diagnostic delays for functional seizures (FS) are associated with functional MRI (fMRI) changes in the insula and cingulate regions of the brain. Both are implicated in mood control, self-referencing, and other emotion-relevant processes.
This study assessed the strengths of association among perceived stress, felt stigma, and depression in adults with epilepsy, and evaluated whether felt stigma altered the association between perceived stress and depression.
Evaluating if consciousness is impaired during seizures is of critical importance for guiding recommendations for people with epilepsy, such as whether it is safe for them to drive or operate machinery. The ILAE classification guidelines are intended to be broadly useful, but our findings demonstrate that at least in one important clinical setting, responsiveness was used more commonly than recall to evaluate patients during focal seizures.
Apart from the increased risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes, the pandemic has also had negative effects on mental health and self-management. Healthcare providers must be vigilant for increased emotional distress in people with epilepsy during the pandemic and consider the importance of effective counseling to diminish risks related to exacerbated treatment gaps.
A change in heart rate prior to seizure onset is more likely to occur in patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy, compared to those with lateral temporal lobe epilepsy and extratemporal lobe epilepsy. Patients with medial temporal lobe epilepsy may likely benefit from seizure warning and detection devices.
The occurrence of seizure-related injuries suffered throughout the lifespan and recurrent injuries in the previous year were high. Injuries were significantly associated with epilepsy variables, the perception of greater severity of seizures and risky activities.
Pediatric Epilepsy
Our results demonstrate that while language remained largely left-lateralized in children recently diagnosed with epilepsy, the impact of seizure duration depended on age of onset indicating that timing of developmental and disease factors are important in determining language dominance.
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare multisystem disorder, often associated with epilepsy. This retrospective study aimed to identify patients with TSC, including those with epilepsy, from a French healthcare claims database, and to report incidence, prevalence, and healthcare costs and resource utilization.
