Active clinical trials for "Epilepsy"

Epilepsy is a serious chronic brain disorder that has a tendency towards recurrent seizures. This affects millions of people throughout the world and brings a heavy socioeconomic burden. The treatment of focal epilepsy is more challenging. Selecting an appropriate antiepileptic drug (AED) remains difficult because the chosen drug must be effective, safe and tolerable. It is important to consider the safety and efficacy of an AED for monotherapy separately. The goal of AED therapy is to achieve seizure control with little or no adverse efects, improve the patient's quality of life and ensure patient satisfaction. Different AEDs can be used to treat focal seizures in adults. First line medication for treating focal seizures is carbamazepine (CBZ), but it has drawbacks such as adverse effects including Steven Johnson syndrome, drug interactions and blood dyscrasia. There is also genetic linkage that Steven-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis with carbamazepine are more common in individuals of Asian descent who carry the HLA-B 1502 allele. Another 1st line drug is lamotrigine (LTG) , it has favourable side effect profile including less sedative effect, less cognitive impairment, less drug interactions and blood dyscrasia. It has an elimination half- life longer than 24 hour, so once daily dosing is possible and it is associated with good drug compliance. Because of its favorable pharmacokinetics and side effect profile, LTG may be preferred to CBZ for focal epileptic seizures. In a study showed that the seizure freedom rate at the end of 6 months was 65% in LTG group compared to 73% in CBZ group. 41% in CBZ group and 32% in LTG group had at least one adverse effects. Few trials have compared the effectiveness and safety of LTG with CBZ as monotherapy for focal seizures worldwide. By far, no study has yet been conducted addressing the issue of efficacy and safety between lamotrigine and carbamazepine among focal epilepsy patients in the context of Bangladeshi population. Since the usage of LTG is less common in Bangladesh, comparative study of efficacy and safety of LTG versus CBZ will be expected to give more confidence for the use of the drug. Considering this, the study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of carbamazepine and lamotrigine among focal epilepsy patients. This study finding have an implication in the treatment protocol which will be beneficial for the patients and physicians as well.

Out of 30,000 new cases per year in France, 30% of epileptic patients are drug-resistant. Neurosurgery, which consists in resecting the epileptogenic zone, is the only chance of cure. In the case of temporal epilepsy of the language-dominant hemisphere (TLE), this procedure presents a high risk of increasing cognitive difficulties and may even be contraindicated for this reason alone. The difficulties found are impairments in lexical access (anomia) and verbal memory and affect more than 60% of patients . Preoperative cognitive rehabilitation could influence brain plasticity mechanisms but there are currently no recommendations on this topic. In this context, the investigators have developed a speech rehabilitation procedure specific to the needs of ELTPR patients. They rely on cognitive hypotheses explaining the disorders but also on models of rehabilitation-induced neural plasticity likely to improve cognitive reserve before surgery. The investigators hypothesize that preoperative cognitive language rehabilitation in ELTPR patients may decrease surgical risk and improve postoperative language prognosis. The primary objective is to demonstrate the protective efficacy of preoperative speech rehabilitation on language performance postoperatively.

This will be a behavioural intervention with no investigational medicinal product. The intervention will be a mobile messaging service that sends short messaging service (SMS) as texts or graphics to people with epilepsy to remind them to take their medication and to refill their prescription and educational messages to share important messages tackling stigma and tips to improve quality of life. The investigators will also engage peripheral health facilities where people with epilepsy (PWE) participating in the study go for ASM refills, in collaboration with the respective county departments of health, to maintain adequate supply of anti-seizure medications through: i. ongoing capacity building studies in Kilifi such as the mental health Gap Action Programme-Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG) training which is empowering primary healthcare providers at peripheral health facilities to identify and manage epilepsy and other mental health disorders. ii. supporting healthcare providers at peripheral facilities through in person visits, if the COVID-19 situation, permits or by telephone or standard message reminders to restock their ASM supply. The participants in the no-intervention group will receive "placebo" health messages not related to epilepsy such as use of bednets. The SMS reminders will be sent at a frequency that will be agreed upon during pre-study engagements with potential participants, whether daily, weekly, or monthly. The participants will be able to respond to these texts to report on their health status and any adverse events. To evaluate whether SMS reminders improve adherence, we will use: i. Self-reporting adherence scales- the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) ii. Measurement of ASM plasma levels at 12 months from baseline.

Objectives: The overall study objective is to compare the sensitivities and specificities of morphometric analysis techniques using structural MRI images based on pre- and postsurgical localization of epileptic foci in patients undergoing presurgical evaluation for medically refractory epilepsy. To carry out these analyses, we aim to establish an age-stratified normative imaging database using healthy volunteers. Additional objectives are to identify abnormal networks in these patients using resting state fMRI/EEG and MEG/EEG, and to use language and memory fMRI tasks to examine the effects of epileptogenic zones and surgery on cognitive function and the networks associated with these functions. Study population: 300 adults and children (age 8 and older) with uncontrolled focal epilepsy, and 200 age-stratified healthy volunteers. Design: A retrospective and prospective natural history study. Research procedures for patients in this study include neuropsychological testing and 1-4 MRI sessions during presurgical evaluation and an additional 1-3 MRI sessions and neuropsychological testing approximately 12 months post-operatively. Research testing (such as research neuropsychological tests or MRI scanning sequences) will be done during a visit for clinical testing whenever possible, likely reducing the number of required visits. Patients will also have optional MEG and 7T structural imaging. Data will also be obtained from patients who have already undergone epilepsy surgery if they had procedures as outlined in the protocol and are willing to share the data. Healthy volunteers will receive a subset of the pre-operative procedures for patients, requiring at least 3 visits. In order to ensure adequate data acquisition, subjects may be re-scanned up to three times for the portions of the study in which they participated, possibly requiring additional visits. Outcome measures: The main outcomes will be establishment of normative values for morphometric analysis methods in age-stratified normal controls, and comparison of the sensitivity and specificity of these measures to pre- and postsurgical localization of the epileptogenic zone. Secondary outcome measures will include determination of the sensitivity and specificity of source localization using MEG/EEG and resting state fMRI/EEG, and to evaluate changes in activation during rest, as well as language and memory fMRI tasks in patients pre- and postsurgically, to examine the effects of epileptogenic zones and surgery on cognitive function and the networks underlying these functions.

This is a randomized effectiveness/implementation trial comparing a 24-week neurology-based collaborative care intervention to usual neurology care among 60 adults with epilepsy.

The purpose of this project is to conduct a trial to assess whether patients that receive a tablet-based waiting room priority communication tool (the "Epilepsy Visit Planner") have improved outcomes compared to patients that do not receive the tool. The project's hypotheses are: Patients that receive the Epilepsy Visit Planner will have improved patient-provider communication compared to the non-planner group. Patients that receive the Epilepsy Visit Planner will have improved quality of life scores. The Epilepsy Visit Planner will score highly on process measures of feasibility and acceptability, demonstrating suitability for future larger scale study. Additionally, there is a related survey project that is not part of the clinical trial and will not be included in this registration information.

The purpose of this research study is to better understand what causes Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). This study will enroll subjects from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) and Epilepsy Clinics. The investigators will analyze the effects of seizures on breathing, on the cardiovascular system, and on arousal. The investigators are studying these effects because some cases of SUDEP might be due, in part, to an inability to wake up or sense elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels when breathing is impaired. Subjects will be followed for ten years after enrollment to monitor their health.

This study evaluates a mindfulness intervention in patients with drug resistant epilepsy. Half of participants will follow a mindfulness programme, while the other half will follow a self management programme.

Vagal nerve stimulation is a neurosurgical procedure consisting of implantation of an impulse generator battery with leads placed into the vagus nerve in the neck. This procedure was FDA approved for epilepsy in the 1990s and is commonly performed as an outpatient surgery. The mechanism of efficacy is not well understood; however it is increasingly recognized that electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve may impact other organ systems in the body including the immune, gastrointestinal and autonomic systems. The primary objective of this study is to characterize the pre- and post-operative bowel habits and gut microbiome of patients implanted with vagal nerve stimulator (VNS) for epilepsy. Secondary objectives of this study include: (1) to characterize the pre- and post-operative autonomic profile, (2) characterize the pre- and post-operative immune profile, and (3) to elucidate whether gut microbiota changes are related to VNS efficacy for epilepsy.

The purpose of this protocol is to learn about movement intention and volition. To improve such knowledge, investigators will conduct sub-studies using multiple non-invasive methodologies. These results could provide preliminary data for subsequent studies evaluating local and global efficacy of plasticity-inducing treatments for PMD symptoms.