Active clinical trials for "Epilepsy"

Effect of oral sodium bicarbonate therapy on renal tubular acidosis in epilepsy patients taking topiramate.

The management of patients with epilepsy is focused on controlling seizures, avoiding treatment side effects, and restoring quality of life. However, about 30% of people are antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) resistance epilepsy after the adequate trials of two AEDs treatment. Genetic factors may contribute to the high interindividual variability in response or adverse effects (such as weight gain and altered lipid profiles) to AEDs. What's more, previous observational studies indicated that vitamin deficiency, such as vitamin B6, is common in patients with epilepsy due to epilepsy itself, AEDs use, or both. Therefore, investigators aim to (1) evaluate the impact of genetic variants on AED and multi-vitamins supplementation in epilepsy, and (2) establish the pharmacogenomics knowledge base of AED and multi-vitamins supplementation on clinical effectiveness in patients with epilepsy.

The purpose of the study is to obtain pilot data on safety and efficacy of ketogenic diet (KD) as adjunctive treatment of adults with refractory epilepsy. This will be an open label study comparing seizure frequency during 4 months of prospective baseline observation period with seizure frequency during 4 months of add-on KD treatment. 18-65 year old men and women with refractory epilepsy, defined as seizures persisting in spite of past/present treatments with ≥ 3 AEDs, with seizure frequency of ≥ 0.5/month, will be evaluated. Subjects with both primary generalized and localization-related epilepsy (PGE, LRE) will be recruited. Subjects will have had epilepsy for at least 2 years prior to enrollment. Following initial screening, subjects will be observed for 4 months, with no change in AEDs except when deemed necessary by the patient's neurologist according to standard clinical care. Patients will then start ketogenic diet. Evaluations will include seizure frequency using a seizure diary, adverse events, treatment compliance using urine and plasma ketone levels. Quality of life will be evaluated with a standardized questionnaire of Quality Of Life In patients with Epilepsy, QOLIE-31-P. Level of alertness will be evaluated with Epworth Sleepiness Scale. These questionnaires will be administered at each visit.

Background: There are a variety of treatment options for medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Evidence from randomized trials indicates vagus nerve stimulation therapy can be used as a proven therapy for medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Resective surgery is one of the most commonly used methods to treat medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy. The aim of this study is to compare the effects of vagus nerve stimulation therapy and resective surgery in the treatment of the medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Methods/Design: In this article, we report the design and protocol of a randomized controlled trial to treat medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy with vagus nerve stimulation therapy or resective surgery. In total, 40 patients aged 12 to 60 years with medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy will be assessed. There are two treatment groups. These patients are randomly assigned to be in one of the following two treatment groups, i.e. 1) undergo temporal lobe resection group, 2) receive vagus nerve stimulation therapy group. The primary outcome is to assess whether vagus nerve stimulation produces a reduction in mean monthly seizure frequency that is comparable to resection at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months of follow-up. The secondary outcomes include the neuropsychological, seizure severity, seizure type, quality of life, mood assessment, operative and postoperative complications and long-term side effects, compared to resection. Discussion: The result of this trial will assess the efficacy of using vagus nerve stimulation therapy or resective surgery to treat medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy, and to determine a better therapy for treating medically refractory medial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Epilepsy, a condition where individuals are prone to recurrent epileptic seizures, is the most common chronic neurological disorder in children. Epilepsy onset is most common in the first two years of life and is associated with poor prognosis for seizure control and neurodevelopmental outcome. The ketogenic diet (KD) is a medically supervised diet that is high in fat and restricted in carbohydrates and protein. KD therapy has shown to be an effective treatment for seizures in children with epilepsy older than two. Associated benefits include: a reduced requirement for routine and emergency antiepileptic drugs (AED) and fewer seizure related hospital admissions. Although reports suggest that KD therapy improves seizures in younger children there is no high quality trial data that demonstrates effectiveness and safety in this age group. The KD is resource intensive, requiring dietetic and physician time; data is required to justify expansion of services to cater for the apparent need. The investigators therefore propose a prospective multicentre randomised trial to investigate the effectiveness and safety of the KD in children with epilepsy under the age of 2, who have failed to respond to two or more AEDs. Children will be randomly assigned to either receive the KD or further AEDs. The allocated treatment will be started after a 2week baseline period, and it's effectiveness assessed after 8 weeks. Seizure diaries will be used to record seizures and related events, a questionnaire will be used to assess diet tolerance; also growth and blood biochemistry will be monitored. The information obtained from this study is necessary to optimise choices in epilepsy treatment, aiming to improve outcomes and thus determine whether and when the KD should should be used.

A prospective cohort study of antiepileptic drug (AED) polytherapy-treated epilepsy patients within the HealthCore Integrated Research Database (HIRD) will be conducted. Following the launch of Ezogabine (EZG), patients initiating a new AED polytherapy regimen will be followed until the earliest of an episode of urinary retention (UR), change in their AED regimen, end of follow-up, or end of study (when the specified sample size of EZG AED polytherapy users has been attained). After the end of study, the incidence of UR during exposures to EZG and non-EZG AED polytherapies will be compared. Polytherapy will be defined as treatment regimen containing at least two different AEDs. A prospective cohort study of patients who receive EZG under circumstances not indicated in the product label within the HIRD will also be conducted. Following the launch of EZG, epilepsy patients initiating AED monotherapy with EZG as well as non-epilepsy patients initiating EZG for another disease will be followed until the earliest of an episode of UR, change in their AED regimen (if applicable), end of follow-up, or end of study. The incidence of UR during exposure to EZG under circumstances not indicated in the product label will be described. A descriptive analysis of the patients will also be included. To meet the other secondary objective, non-EZG AED monotherapy users will be identified in the prospective cohort and incidence of UR will be calculated to determine if there is a difference in UR risk between monotherapy and polytherapy AED use.

Both sodium valproate and lamotrigine are currently used in the treatment of newly diagnosed epilepsy. Although they appear to have similar efficacy, they have different side effects, which have not been well studied. This study aims to compare one particular aspect of their possible side effects, namely whether they affect certain hormonal functions.

There had been much evidence in aspirin controlling tumorous conditions conducted by basic researches, especially through mammilian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The investigator observed efficacy of aspirin in the treatment of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in one child who got Kawasaki disease and in the addition four TSC patients with epilepsy. The investigator intend to evaluate whether aspirin would be an effective add-on treatment in TSC patients with refractory seizures.

Epilepsy is a frequent group of diseases, affecting 1% of the general population with a higher incidence in children. Anti-epileptic drugs are used as part of the drug treatment. Even if children with epilepsy have its own characteristics, as in adults, the choice of an anti-epileptic treatment is also based on the benefit-risk balance. The purpose of the treatment should not only be the seizure control. The occurence of side effects is a major factor to be taken into account. In the special populatIon of children with resistant epilepsy (20 to 30% of epilepsy), the treatment goal is not any more to be seizure free but to achieve the lowest possible frequency of seizures with the lowest level of side effects. When assessing the benefit-risk balance of antiepileptic treatment, it is important to keep in mind that the child is a developing human being whose main activity is learning. Special attention should be paid to minimize treatments with excessive cognitive consequences. Be particularly wary of combination therapies (combinations of several antiepileptic treatments). Indeed, it is well established that they are more harmful than monotherapy. It is also important to avoid the use of drugs with too strong a cognitive effect. Some molecules such as phenobarbital or topiramate have been the subject of a few studies that have established their deleterious effect on the cognitive level. Among antiepileptics, benzodiazepines are sometimes used as disease-modifying therapy. In France, clobazam is the clonazepam have a Marketing Authorization for children. However, there is no study to determine whether these molecules have cognitive consequences. In order to have more data to better establish the risk-benefit balance of benzodiazepines in the treatment of children with epilepsy, the investigators wish to conduct work to evaluate the cognitive consequences of benzodiazepines in children treated for epilepsy.

The study proposed aims to evaluate the effect of Levetiracetam in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a Phase 2 Clinical Trial. Levetiracetam is an established anti-epileptic medication that has been approved by NICE (UK) as a first line treatment for focal epilepsy. Levetiracetam is now generic and acts, as all anti-epileptic medications do, by stabilising neuronal networks. However, Levetiracetam appears unique amongst the anti-epileptic medications in being able to stabilise aberrant neuronal networks in Alzheimer's disease. In both animal models of AD and in patients with mild cognitive impairment, Levetiracetam can offer benefit to cognition. The investigators therefore aim to test whether Levetiracetam, through stabilisation of neuronal networks, may offer benefit to cognition in patients with AD.