Epilepsy News

For patients with epilepsy, negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic include heightened seizure frequency and an increase in comorbid psychiatric disorders, among other concerns, according to survey results from Spain.

Adjunctive brain-responsive neurostimulation results in significant and sustained decreases in the frequency of focal-onset seizures while also improving quality of life, according to study data published in Neurology.

Neurologists should consider evaluating all patients with refractory focal epilepsy that is presumed to be lesional for resective epilepsy surgery, according to findings published in The Lancet Neurology.

The low glycemic index therapy diet provided a balance between reducing seizures and relatively fewer adverse events compared with the ketogenic diet and the modified Atkins diet, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures have a standardized mortality ratio 2.5 times greater than the general population and die at a rate similar to patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, according to findings published in Neurology.

The FDA recently announced its approval of the cannabis-based Epidiolex, an oral solution to treat seizures in patients aged older than 1 year with tuberous sclerosis complex, a rare genetic disease that causes noncancerous tumors to grow in the brain and other parts of the body.

In this guest editorial, Steve Chung, MD, a neurologist at Banner – University Medicine Neuroscience Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, discusses new treatment options for patients suffering from epilepsy. Chung, who specializes in epilepsy care, is trying to raise awareness among physicians of the development of certain rescue therapies that can spare patients from trips to the ED and improve their quality of life.

Pediatric patients with epilepsy treated with pharmaceutical CBD had better seizure control than those treated with artisanal CBD, according to findings from a retrospective chart review that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting this spring.

Smartphone videos taken by witnesses could help physicians diagnose epileptic seizures, according to a study published in JAMA Neurology.

The FDA has granted Zogenix Inc. breakthrough therapy designation for low-dose fenfluramine use to treat seizures related to Dravet syndrome, according to a press release issued by the company.