Anticonvulsant News and Research

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Doctors question FDA suicide alert on anticonvulsant drugs

Medical specialists at the nation's largest professional meeting on epilepsy discussed multiple questions and concerns they have about data presented by the FDA in support of its recent suicide alert on anticonvulsant drugs (AEDs) and the potential effect of the federal agency's analyses on clinical practice and the way AED drug trials are to be conducted in the future.

10 Dec 2008

WHO makes urgent call for services for mental disorders to be scaled up

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says millions of people with mental disorders in the developing world are deprived of necessary treatment and care and has called for an urgent scaling up of services.

13 Oct 2008

High cholesterol levels drop naturally in children on high-fat antiseizure diet

Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology.

26 Aug 2008

Generic Trileptal (oxcarbazepine) approved in U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic versions of Trileptal (oxcarbazepine), an anticonvulsant drug.

10 Oct 2007

Ovation Pharmaceuticals advances development pipeline with new phase III epilepsy study

OVATION Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the initiation of a pivotal Phase III clinical trial evaluating clobazam, a unique 1,5 benzodiazapine with significant anticonvulsant properties, as adjunctive treatment for patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), one of the most severe forms of childhood epilepsy that frequently persists into adulthood.

5 Sep 2007

Urgent need for better understanding of bipolar disease in children and adolescents

The number of visits to a doctor's office that resulted in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has increased by 40 times over the last decade, reported researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

4 Sep 2007

Anticonvulsant medication gabapentin effective for fibromyalgia pain

New research supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) shows that the anticonvulsant medication gabapentin, which is used for certain types of seizures, can be an effective treatment for the pain and other symptoms associated with the common, often hard-to-treat chronic pain disorder, fibromyalgia.

14 Jun 2007

Bipolar all too often misdiagnosed

According to researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) there are twice as many Americans with bipolar disorder as previously thought, and many are untreated.

9 May 2007

Bipolar disorder may be more accurately characterized as a spectrum disorder

A new study supports earlier estimates of the prevalence of bipolar disorder in the U.S. population, and suggests the illness may be more accurately characterized as a spectrum disorder.

8 May 2007

Scientists spot mechanism behind promising new sleep drug

An experimental drug called gaboxadol may soon help millions of bleary-eyed insomniacs get to sleep, and a multi-center team of U.S. scientists believes they've pinpointed just how the drug works.

1 Nov 2006

MIT device to detect and prevent epileptic seizures

Epilepsy affects about 50 million people worldwide, and while anticonvulsant medications can reduce the frequency of seizures, the drugs are ineffective for as many as one in three patients.

12 Sep 2006

High rates of off-label prescriptions for antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antipsychotic drugs

A University of Georgia study has found that three-quarters of people prescribed antidepressant drugs receive the medications for a reason not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

26 Jul 2006

Doctors widely prescribe drugs without adequate scrutiny

In choosing which drugs to prescribe, doctors often select medications for patients despite a lack of conclusive medical evidence of their effects and safety, according to a new study led by a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

9 May 2006

Off-label prescribing common, often not backed by data

A study of office-based physicians in the United States suggests that about one-fifth of medications are prescribed to treat conditions for which they are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that nearly three-fourths of those uses lack strong scientific support, according to an article in the May 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

9 May 2006

Large scale study shows success of epilepsy surgery

In one of the largest epilepsy surgery studies ever conducted, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that 81 percent of patients with intractable epilepsy become totally or nearly seizure-free six months following epilepsy surgery. Ten years later, 72 percent remained totally or nearly seizure-free.

11 Apr 2006

Valproic acid may help slow the progression of dementia

Researchers have found that a common anticonvulsant drug improved cognitive function and appeared to restore nerve cells in the brains of patients with HIV-related dementia. The results of the Phase I clinical trial are published in the March issue of the scientific journal Neurology.

14 Mar 2006

Link between diet and epileptic seizures studied

Although the high-fat, calorie-restricted ketogenic diet (KD) has long been used to prevent childhood epileptic seizures that are unresponsive to drugs, physicians have not really understood exactly why the diet works.

13 Nov 2005

Botulinum toxin successfully treats trigeminal neuralgia

There is another use for botulinum toxin which has brought relief to some who suffer from migraines and eye spasms. Botulinum toxin can also successfully treat intense facial pain called trigeminal neuralgia, according to a study published in the October 25, 2005, issue of Neurology

24 Oct 2005

Effects of anticonvulsants on women

The Epilepsy Foundation has issued a Call to Action to women of childbearing age who take anticonvulsant medications for conditions that include epilepsy, migraine headaches, and certain psychiatric disorders, urging them to talk to their healthcare providers about treatment options.

4 Oct 2005

Depressant benzodiazepine especially effective at treating seizure in alcohol withdrawal syndrome patients

Tranquilizers work better than placebos at treating the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome but they may not work better than other drugs, according to a new review of recent studies.

29 Aug 2005