Epilepsy News and Research

Latest Epilepsy News and Research

New NPO formed to accelerate development of therapies for Shankopathies

Parents of children affected by Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) announce the formation of CureSHANK, a nonprofit organization on a mission to accelerate drug development in PMS and other diseases related to the SHANK genes for which there are currently no FDA approved treatments.

23 Oct 2019

Risk of health conditions among adults who were born premature

Swedish researchers looked at the risk of having health conditions including high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, heart disease or epilepsy among adults who had been born prematurely. The study titled, “Prevalence of Survival Without Major Comorbidities Among Adults Born Prematurely,” was published in the latest issue of the JAMA this month.

22 Oct 2019

Researchers receive $3.2 million NIH grant to pursue a deeper understanding of Down syndrome

Mount Sinai researchers have been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to pursue a deeper understanding of Down syndrome, the most common genetic cause of intellectual and developmental disabilities in children and young adults, affecting more than 200,000 individuals in the United States.

22 Oct 2019

Parents of adults with epilepsy face wide array of issues with very little support

Barbara Kalinoski takes charge of things. She's been chair of the school board. President of the Laurentian Lakes Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. Director of the Northwest Regional Library. President of the Minnesota Library Association.

21 Oct 2019

New NIH BRAIN Initiative awards accelerate the pace of neuroscience research

Scientists have been developing astounding new tools for exploring neural circuits that underlie brain function throughout the first five years of the National Institutes of Health's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative.

18 Oct 2019

Keto diet may cause skin problems

Researchers from Austria have found that ketogenic diets could affect psoriasis-like skin inflammation in mice. They noted that keto diets including medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) such as coconut along with omega-3 fatty acids obtained from nuts and seeds and fish oil could be a recipe for psoriasis exacerbation. They speculated that this could be true for humans as well. The study titled, “The Influence of Ketogenic Diets on Psoriasiform-Like Skin Inflammation,” was published this week in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

17 Oct 2019

Leading children's hospitals to use multi-year federal grant to scale up genomics research collaboration

With a shared vision of accelerating genomic discovery and improving patient outcomes, leaders from Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital came together in 2015 to form the Genomics Research and Innovation Network.

17 Oct 2019

Study underlines the importance of composition of fatty acids in diet

Not all fats are equal in how they affect our skin, according to a new study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier.

17 Oct 2019

Concussed athlete's brain may not fully recover even one year after return to play

How long does it take an athlete to recover from a concussion? New research has found an athlete's brain may still not be fully recovered one year after being allowed to return to play.

16 Oct 2019

Brain's neural activity plays a role in human aging, life span

The brain's neural activity - long implicated in disorders ranging from dementia to epilepsy - also plays a role in human aging and life span, according to research led by scientists in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

16 Oct 2019

Early diagnosis of infantile seizures crucial to brain development

When caring for a baby who is younger than 2 years old, you may focus on the usual development milestones like weight gain and head circumference. However, it may be worthwhile for pediatric specialists and parents to work together to identify if the baby has any neurological disorders.

15 Oct 2019

Risk of genetic seizure disorder: new scoring system

A Cleveland Clinic-led initiative has come up with a new risk scoring system for epileptic or seizure disorders of genetic origin. The researchers summed up the risks for a very large number of genes weakly implicated in some common forms of epilepsy, to create a polygenic risk score.

14 Oct 2019

Cleveland Clinic-led researchers develop novel genetic-based epilepsy risk scores

An international team of researchers led by Cleveland Clinic has developed new genetic-based epilepsy risk scores which may lay the foundation for a more personalized method of epilepsy diagnosis and treatment.

14 Oct 2019

Jumping genes can contribute to rare childhood developmental disorders

The largest study of its kind into childhood developmental disorders has discovered that jumping genes cause genetic changes in some patients with undiagnosed neurodevelopmental diseases.

11 Oct 2019

Criticality is a hallmark of normally functioning brain networks, research shows

Researchers long wondered how the billions of independent neurons in the brain come together to reliably build a biological machine that easily beats the most advanced computers. All of those tiny interactions appear to be tied to something that guarantees an impressive computational capacity.

8 Oct 2019

Deep brain stimulation effective in resistant depression

A new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry says deep brain stimulation is an effective treatment in depressed patients who do not respond to other forms of therapy. The study published on October 4, 2019, looked at the long-term effects on patients who had received electrical stimulation to the subcallosal cingulate area of the brain. The subcallosal cingulate area of the brain is also called Brodmann Area 25, and has been targeted by researchers as a possible focus for antidepressant stimulation.

7 Oct 2019

Rare genetic disorder more common than previously thought, report shows

Approximately one in forty-two thousand children are born with a disease called CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, according to a new medical report recently published in the journal Brain and presented last month at the 13th European Pediatric Neurology Society Congress in Athens, Greece.

4 Oct 2019

Long-term study data shows DBS is effective for patients with treatment-resistant depression

A study published online on Friday, October 4, in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of an area in the brain called the subcallosal cingulate (SCC) provides a robust antidepressant effect that is sustained over a long period of time in patients with treatment-resistant depression--the most severely depressed patients who have not responded to other treatments.

4 Oct 2019

Study: Drops in income may lead to thinking problems, reduced brain health

Young adults who experience annual income drops of 25 percent or more may be more at risk of having thinking problems and reduced brain health in middle age, according to a study published in the October 2, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

3 Oct 2019