Active clinical trials for "Epilepsy"

In up to 1 out of 3 patients with epilepsy, seizures continue to occur despite the use of one or more antiepileptic medications. Patients also have significant problems with side-effects of these medications as doses are increased. Our body naturally generates miniature pumps located on the surfaces of many organs to get rid of toxic substances, and antiepileptic medications can be considered by the cells of the body to be a toxin. Research with epileptic brain regions have shown an increase in the amount of drug pumps, therefore getting rid of antiepileptic drugs. One of these pumps is called p-glycoprotein (P-gp for short). Medications may be unable to penetrate and stay within the parts of the brain that need them them most. This may mean that the amount of drug is actually lower in the parts of the brain that cause seizures, and higher in the rest of the brain, which may be why patients may still feel side-effects when seizures are still occurring. Research in animals has shown that blocking the P-gp pumps can improve how bad, and how many seizures occur as well as the length of seizures. Blockage of the pumps can be done using a different type of medication. Some medications that are used for common problems have been discovered to also block P-gp pumps. One of these, carvedilol, is used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure. It has been found to be very safe in these patients, and does not have a lot of side-effects. We plan to add this medication in addition to patient's anti-seizure medications to see if it will improve epileptic seizures. The reason why some patients have high amounts of P-gp pumps and others do not may be related to their genetics. A simple blood test can be used to determine a person's potential to produce high quantities of the pumps. This study will also attempt to show that the genetics will affect how well the P-gp blocking will work.

This study will assess long-term safety and tolerability of repeat dose diazepam nasal spray in adolescents and adults with cluster seizures, with a focus on potential local effects (changes in nasal mucosa, olfaction, and taste).

Seizures that arise in specific areas in the brain are called Localization Related Epilepsy (LRE) and are the most common seizure disorder in children. Children that receive drug treatment for this disorder may suffer from treatment related side effects which impact their ability to think or concentrate and their ability to interact socially. These negative treatment effects can impact the child's performance in school and long term may impact employment and job options. This study will determine whether changes in attention and social interactions are seen in children treated for LRE using three of the most common medications used to treat pediatric LRE. Children who are newly diagnosed with LRE by their doctors and are between the ages of 5 years 6 months and 16 years 0 months will be randomized to receive levetiracetam, lamotrigine, or oxcarbazepine. There will be 14 study sites throughout the US. Children will undergo evaluation of their thinking and ability to pay attention before and after starting drug treatment for LRE. Regardless of the specific findings, results of this study will provide the information needed to help parents and their clinicians choose treatment options that maximize cognitive abilities in children with LRE, and provide the data needed for practice guidelines to be established on the basis of cognitive side effect risks.

High Resolution Imaging of Cerebral Vasculature by Functional Micro-Doppler Sonography During Brain Surgery (ULYS)

The primary goal of the study is to assess the effect of pre-oxygenation on oxygen and carbon dioxide levels during seizures in patients admitted at the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). The investigators hypothesize that providing oxygen prior to seizures will help eliminate the drops in changes seen during seizures, such as the drop in oxygen saturation and increase in carbon dioxide levels. Research will be done on patients that are admitted to the EMU specifically to have seizures occur and to be recorded on video electroencephalography (vEEG), and the only research intervention will be the use of oxygen prior to some of the seizures. The importance of this research relates to the phenomenon of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy patients (SUDEP). SUDEP cases are typically patients with epilepsy who are found dead by their families in the morning, without a clear cause for death. The risk of SUDEP is as high as 9.3 per 1000 person-years (Shorvon and Tomson 2011). There may be multiple mechanisms for SUDEP to occur, however a leading hypothesis is a decrease in ventilation during the seizure leading to hypoxia. Blood oxygen saturation levels have been found to decrease significantly in 25-50% of patients during or shortly after a seizure while being monitored in hospitals. In rare situations, a significantly lowered oxygen level may trigger a cascade of events from which the body may not be able to recover, leading to SUDEP. In animal models, providing oxygen prior to seizures occurring has been shown to eliminate oxygen desaturation, but more importantly eliminate mortality in animals prone to death due to seizures. Pre-oxygenation is a standard procedure during rapid-sequence induction anesthesia as it reduces the risk of oxygen desaturation during the apneic period of the procedure. On room air, the estimated duration of safe apnea is 1 minute, but this can increase to 8 minutes following pre-treatment with high FiO2 (Weingart and Levitan 2012). This is primarily due to oxygen replacing nitrogen within alveoli, creating a reservoir of oxygen within the lungs from which transfer to the bloodstream can continue despite the lack of ventilation. The apneic episode during seizures should benefit from the same principle. The main purpose of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) is to evaluate patients to better characterize seizures, to identify the main seizure focus. In addition to standard EEG with electrodes on the scalp, some patients require invasive localization of the epileptic focus by surgically placing electrodes within the skull (often referred to as GRID patients) on or within the brain, with the goal of being able to resect the area that is causing seizures. To identify where seizure originate electrically, it requires that seizures occur during the vEEG procedure. To provoke seizures, medications are typically lowered, and both partial seizures and those with secondary generalization to full tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures will occur. Prior research has shows that oxygen desaturation below 90% occurs with some complex partial seizures, but hypoxia is more common and more profound with GTCs. Some centers use oxygen saturation and CO2 monitors as their standard of care, and at NYULMC the investigators also have the capability for both for clinical usage. Oxygen is not currently a mandated standard-of-care, but is often provided by nasal prongs following seizures as part of the post-ictal nursing care, though there is no outcome data to support its use. It is unknown whether pre-treatment with oxygen will reduce the rate of oxygen desaturations clinically, as seen in animal models, and this is the goal of this research project.

The purpose of this study is to investigate a novel stimulation protocol of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of unifocal neocortical epilepsy, namely continuous thetaburst stimulation (cTBS). As this is a pilot study, the primary endpoint is on safety and tolerability of the treatment. However, information on clinical efficacy and mechanism of action will also be collected.

The present study evaluates the effect of oral contraceptives on lamotrigine plasma concentrations in a double blind, placebo controlled, cross-over study in patients with epilepsy.

Patients with focal epileptic seizures with or without generalization who are at present treated with one or two antiepileptic drugs are eligible for this study, provided that they fulfill all inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria. Following a baseline phase of 8 weeks duration, the patients are randomised and they receive an initial daily dose of 50 mg zonisamide during the first week. The daily dose is then increased to 200 mg zonisamide in group A or 400 mg zonisamide in group B, respectively. After eight weeks of treatment, the daily dose in group A can be increased to 300 mg in case of insufficient efficacy. Control assessments are performed at the beginning of the study and at the end of the prospective baseline phase, if applicable and after 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks. At the end of the first, second, and third treatment week, and at the end of week six, the patient is additionally contacted by telephone. Efficacy and safety parameters are assessed at baseline, during all control visits, and at the end of the study.

This is a multi-center, open-label, crossover, pharmacokinetic, bio-availability study involving adolescents and adults with refractory (drug-resistant) epilepsy. Cohort 1 comprises the subjects used to determine the relative bioavailability of DZNS versus DRG (Diastat)

This study will give important information about long term consequences of temporal lobe epilepsy surgery on cognition (memory, language, concentration etc), psychiatric function and quality of life.