Epilepsy News and Research

Latest Epilepsy News and Research

Alternative anti-inflammatory approach to epilepsy management

If common anticonvulsant drugs fail to manage epileptic seizures, then perhaps the anti-inflammatory route is the way to go. That's according to Mattia Maroso and colleagues from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, who found that giving mice repeated doses of a specific enzyme inhibitor significantly reduced both chronic epileptic activity and acute seizures.

28 Mar 2011

Findings conflict with traditional view of how epileptic seizures begin

The first study to examine the activity of hundreds of individual human brain cells during seizures has found that seizures begin with extremely diverse neuronal activity, contrary to the classic view that they are characterized by massively synchronized activity.

28 Mar 2011

Major breakthrough in brain signal processing

A team of Neuroscientists from NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, have made a major breakthrough in understanding how signals are processed in the human brain.

28 Mar 2011

Researchers identify gene that can predict hypersensitivity to epilepsy drug

Research published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. A multinational team of scientists led by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the University of Liverpool has identified a gene that could indicate if epilepsy patients starting a common drug treatment are likely to experience side-effects ranging from a mild skin irritation to the potentially fatal Steven-Johnson Syndrome.

25 Mar 2011

Children with epilepsy more likely to have psychiatric symptoms

A newly published report reveals that children with epilepsy are more likely to have psychiatric symptoms, with gender a determining factor in their development.

25 Mar 2011

Cardiac pacing may help epilepsy patients with seizure-related falls

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that cardiac pacing may help epilepsy patients with seizure-related falls due to ictal asystole, an unusual condition in which the heart stops beating during an epileptic seizure. The study was recently published in the journal Epilepsia.

24 Mar 2011

Researchers develop new epileptic seizure-detection method

Researchers at Concordia University have pioneered a computer-based method to detect epileptic seizures as they occur - a new technique that may open a window on the brain's electrical activity.

24 Mar 2011

Biologists decipher molecular code regulating availability of brain channel linked to neuronal excitability

A key question in protein biochemistry is how proteins recognize "correct" interaction partners in a sea of cellular factors. Nowhere is that more critical to know than in the brain, where interactions governing channel protein activity can alter an organism's behavior.

23 Mar 2011

Researcher to look for genes that can suppress epileptic seizures in fruit flies

"Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration" - is the name of a rare and competitive grant that Reenan recently won from the National Institutes of Health. Beginning April 1, Reenan will use the four-year, $1.3-million award to look for genes that can suppress seizures in fruit flies that he has cleverly engineered to mimic human epilepsy.

22 Mar 2011

Study: Stem cell transplant may benefit patients with rapidly progressive MS

A long term study reports about the effectiveness of replacing bone marrow, purposely destroyed by chemotherapy, with autologous stem cell rescue for people with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis.

22 Mar 2011

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Canadians have one of the highest rates of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in the world with approximately 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Primarily striking in adulthood, physicians and researchers with the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Diseases Network (CPDDN), a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary group, have found that MS is being increasingly diagnosed in children.

21 Mar 2011

Insight into hereditary diseases

Hereditary diseases such as epilepsy or various coordination disorders may be caused by changes in nerve cells of the cerebellum, which do not set in until after birth. This is reported by Bochum's neuroscientists in the Journal of Neuroscience.

19 Mar 2011

Scientists to develop new MR imaging techniques for brain study

A Norwegian research centre is developing new magnetic resonance imaging techniques to study the brain. This could have impact for victims of brain damage as well as Alzheimer patients.

19 Mar 2011

Gene therapy for Parkinson’s: It works!

A latest study has shown that gene therapy may be successful in treating the dreaded brain degenerative disease – Parkinson’s disease. Neurologists are hopeful that it could be useful in other neurologic disorders too.

17 Mar 2011

The Lancet Neurology publishes Neurologix NLX-P101 Phase 2 trial results against PD

Neurologix, Inc., announced today that the results of the Company's Phase 2 clinical trial for its novel, investigational gene therapy NLX-P101 for the treatment of Parkinson's disease were published in an online-first edition of The Lancet Neurology.

17 Mar 2011

Medtronic introduces Activa SC deep brain stimulation system in the U.S. and Europe

With the first U.S. implant of its new Activa SC neurostimulator for deep brain stimulation therapy, Medtronic, Inc. today announced the technology's commercial availability throughout the United States and Europe.

17 Mar 2011

Depressed, older people who have a stroke are more likely to be dependent

People who have a stroke are more likely to be dependent if they are depressed, older or have other medical problems, according to a study published in the March 15, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

15 Mar 2011

New insight into neurodegenerative disorders

Research into how the brain transmits messages to other parts of the body could improve understanding of disorders such as epilepsy, dementia, multiple sclerosis and stroke.

15 Mar 2011

Supernus SPN-812 Phase IIa U.S. clinical trial in ADHD meets primary endpoints

Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that its Phase IIa U.S. clinical trial of SPN-812 in adults for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) met the primary endpoints of safety and tolerability, and showed statistically significant median reduction versus placebo in both investigator-rated and patient-rated ADHD symptom scores.

11 Mar 2011

St. Joseph's Hospital launches new neuromodulation center in Barrow

St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center's Barrow Neurological Institute has received a $10.1 million donation, the largest single gift in the organization's history and one of the biggest ever given to any Arizona hospital.

10 Mar 2011