Seizure News and Research

Latest Seizure News and Research

1.7 million will be anxious when Medicare coverage of anxiety drugs ceases

When the U.S. Government's new prescription drug benefit begins next year a category of drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures will not be included.

28 Jun 2005

fMRI enables noninvasive evaluation of epilepsy patients

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain reduces the need for invasive testing of seizure disorder patients being considered for surgical treatment, according to a study published in the July issue of the journal Radiology.

28 Jun 2005

Guidelines for treatment of essential tremor

Imagine not being able to hold a glass, tie your shoelaces or write a check. For people with the common movement disorder known as essential tremor, simple tasks requiring fine motor coordination become increasingly difficult, sometimes even impossible.

27 Jun 2005

Marijuana activists nervous after raids

Marijuana activists in the U.S. fear that recent raids by federal agents are the beginning of an attempt by authorities to wipe out local dispensaries which provide marijuana for medical purposes.

27 Jun 2005

Brazil patent seizure threatens global trade and public health

With a number of other non-profit groups, ITSSD is calling attention to Brazil's threat to break U.S. patents on American AIDS drugs used as part of Brazil's government-funded treatment program.

19 Jun 2005

Brain surgery for epilepsy means patients still free of fits 30 years later

A study has shown that thirty years after undergoing temporal lobectomy for epilepsy, half of patients are still free from seizures.

15 Jun 2005

Prognosis is good for people who have epilepsy surgery

A new study shows that the prognosis is good for people who have epilepsy surgery, even 30 years after the surgery. The study is published in the June 14 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

13 Jun 2005

No need to rush to take epilepsy drugs

A new study from the UK says that it is not neccessary to rush to put people on drugs if they have only infrequent seizures.

12 Jun 2005

No significant long-term benefit in administering immediate treatment to those with early epilepsy

Around 500,000 people in the UK suffer from epilepsy, making it the most common serious neurological condition. Many of those who develop epilepsy start having seizures during childhood, but it can develop at any age.

10 Jun 2005

Giving individuals with single or infrequent seizures immediate treatment does not reduce their risk of seizure recurrence in the long-term

Between 1993 and 2000, David Chadwick (University of Liverpool, UK) and colleagues, recruited around 1400 patients with single or infrequent seizures from centres in the UK and around the world.

9 Jun 2005

Rituximab provides new hope for people with lupus

Rheumatologists at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Vienna, Austria heard today (Thursday 9 June) that rituximab is the first drug in a quarter of a century that is making a real impact, and an alternative to previous standard treatments of high-dose steroids, and chemotherapy.

9 Jun 2005

Doctors study surgery to stop epileptic seizures

Melinda Hillyard of Winchester, Va., first had epileptic seizures when she was eight years old. The seizures went away for years, then returned after the birth of her first child. "I never knew when my world would turn upside down," she recalled.

6 Jun 2005

Electroconvulsive therapy not damaging to memory -- early results

Severely depressed elderly Victorians are benefiting from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) -- and, contrary to popular belief, the treatment is not damaging their memories, a Monash University study has found.

6 Jun 2005

A promising animal model demonstrates course of epilepsy

A promising animal model of epilepsy became even more valuable with the demonstration that the course of the disorder closely parallels that of one of the most common forms of epilepsy in humans.

6 Jun 2005

New vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has announced that a study to be published in the June 22/29 issue found that a new vaccine against whooping cough is effective in teens and adults, carriers of the contagious respiratory disease so dangerous to infants.

3 Jun 2005

Lafora disease can be caused by mutations in a gene that regulates the concentration of the protein laforin

Researchers at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have found that Lafora disease, an inherited form of epilepsy that results in death by the age of 30, can be caused by mutations in a gene that regulates the concentration of the protein laforin. These findings are reported in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

1 Jun 2005