Active clinical trials for "Epilepsy"

The purpose of this research study is to determine whether a 12-week telehealth aerobic exercise intervention is feasible in people with epilepsy. The study team will also gather information on the effect of the intervention on sleep and stress as mediators of seizure frequency, well as effects on epilepsy and epilepsy associated comorbidities.

This study will provide a comprehensive assessment of long-term treatment with the ketogenic diet, a medical diet with high fat and low carbohydrate intake, focusing on safety and cardiovascular implications. We will assess patients with epilepsy or one of two rare metabolic diseases; glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1 DS) or pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDHD).

This is an open-label study to evaluate the pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of ezogabine/retigabine in subjects aged 12 years to less than 18 years with uncontrolled partial onset seizures or Lennos-Gastaut syndrome.

The study is being done to understand why some patients with epilepsy (disease of recurrence of seizures) do not respond very well to drug treatment with anticonvulsants. Despite the availability of many anticonvulsants, about 30% of patients with epilepsy are resistant to them. The cause of the resistance is not clear, but one of the reasons could be an increased amount of proteins in the cells of the body called transporter proteins. Transporter proteins are a group of proteins that help to defend the body against toxins, including drugs, by pumping them out of the cells. Studies have shown that the number of transporter proteins is higher in the parts of the brain that trigger seizures when compared to other parts of the brain. Studies in animals have shown that taking an anticonvulsant with an inhibitor (meaning "to stop" or "to reduce") of a transporter protein can increase the concentration of that anticonvulsant inside the brain cells. The main purpose of the study is to determine if taking an anticonvulsant and a transporter protein inhibitor will change the brain concentration of the anticonvulsant. In this study, a single dose of phenytoin (Dilantin® is a brand name anticonvulsant which has phenytoin as its active ingredient), a commonly used anticonvulsant, will be given once by itself, and then will be given a separate time with a single (i.e. one time only) dose of probenecid. Probenecid, a medicine used commonly to treat gout (a disease of increased uric acid), is known to be an inhibitor of transporter proteins. The study will use electroencephalogram or EEG (recording of brain wave activities) to determine if the EEG pattern when probenecid is given, will be different from the EEG pattern when phenytoin is given alone. This will suggest that probenecid has affected the brain concentration of phenytoin.

Approximately 3 million individuals suffer from epilepsy in America alone and about 200,000 new cases of epilepsy in America are diagnosed each year (Epilepsy Foundation, 2005). Epilepsy can be defined as a condition in which a person has recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Prolonged or back-to-back repetitive seizures, known as "acute repetitive seizures" (ARS), are medical emergencies. ARS can occur unexpectedly, a circumstance for which quick and efficient antiepileptic drugs are needed for household and prehospital use. Currently, benzodiazepines are the antiepileptic drug of choice when dealing with ARS because they are proven to be efficient and take little time to work. Benzodiazepines can be administered by mouth, by vein via a needle (intravenously; IV), rectally, between the cheek and gum (buccally), or in the nose (intranasally; IN). The nasal formulation is not yet FDA-approved. The rectal treatment route has been commonly used for acute seizure treatment in past years, but recent studies propose that the nasal route for benzodiazepines may be better overall for home treatment and easier to administer (see Wermeling, 2009). For many "out of hospital" situations, nasal benzodiazepines can be more convenient and more comfortable than rectal treatment. In addition to the above benefits, nasal benzodiazepines are rapidly absorbed by the blood vessels in the nose and the time of drug administration and cessation of seizures may thus be reduced using nasal routes. This study sets out to characterize how fast buccal and nasal treatments begin to work on the brain by monitoring brain waves during administration of the drug, and to determine whether nasal or buccal administration is best.

This is a double blind, placebo controlled, add-on clinical trial, of levetiracetam efficacy and safety, in epilepsy cluster seizure. Efficacy is evaluated in the range of 2 to 24 hours after taking the tablet. If the patient has a seizure during this interval, he is considered as a non-respondent patient.

To compare outcomes over 12 months of treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) alone or vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy plus AEDs in patients who have partial seizures refractory to at least two, but not more than five, AEDs.

The purpose of this study evaluate the relationship between inflammation and epilepsy in neonates with seizures after birth.

The purpose of this pilot study is to measure adherence and quality of life in adults with intractable epilepsy following the Modified Atkins Diet (MAD) with Betaquik, a ready-to-use medium chain triglyceride (MCT) emulsion, as an adjunct to the MAD.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a treatment for Epilepsia Partialis Continua (EPC) or refractory Status Epilepticus (SE), when standard clinical treatments have failed.