Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/epilepsy/admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241329.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241329.phpWhile epilepsy surgery is a safe and effective intervention for seizure control, medical therapy remains the more prominent treatment option for those with epilepsy. However, a new 26-year study reveals that following epilepsy surgery, nearly half of participants were free of disabling seizures and 80% reported better quality of life than before surgery...Epilepsy Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241268.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241268.phpTo explore the most intricate structures of the brain in order to decipher how it functions - Stefan Hell's team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen has made a significant step closer to this goal...Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240871.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240871.php In the U.S., Keppra® has been approved as adjunctive therapy for partial onset seizures in adults and children aged four years and older with epilepsy. However the UCB recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved to lower the age restriction to include infants from the age of one month and older with epilepsy. Professor Dr...Epilepsy Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240468.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240468.phpBecause of care advances, more infants and children with previously lethal health problems are surviving. Many, however, are left with lifelong neurologic impairment. A Children's Hospital Boston study of more than 25 million pediatric hospitalizations in the U.S...Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240420.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240420.phpBenign familial infantile epilepsy (BFIE) has been recognised for some time as infantile seizures, without fever, that run in families but the cause has so far eluded researchers. However clinical researchers at the University of Melbourne and Florey Neurosciences Institute and molecular geneticists at the University of South Australia have discovered a gene...Epilepsy Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239965.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239965.php New guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology will help physicians better choose seizure drugs for people on HIV/AIDS medication, avoiding deadly drug interactions and preventing critical anti-HIV drugs from becoming less effective, possibly leading to a more virulent strain of the disease...Epilepsy Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239978.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239978.phpAccording to a large Swedish investigation published in PloS Medicine, epilepsy is not directly linked to an increased risk of committing violent crime. Although, individuals who previously experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI) have an increased risk of committing violent crime...Epilepsy Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239890.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239890.php Colin Saldanha, a biology professor at American University in Washington, D.C., has always been intrigued by the hormone estrogen. Specifically, how the hormone that does so much (for example, it promotes sexual behavior in women but can also increase susceptibility to seizures) does not cause major cross circuit meltdowns...Neurology / Neuroscience Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239795.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239795.phpMarinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, announced that its neurosteroid ganaxolone which is currently under study for the treatment of partial onset seizures (POS), reported positive data in the open-label extension follow up to the company's Phase 2 clinical trial. The data reflects the replication of the effects seen in the double-blind study...Epilepsy Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239317.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239317.phpChildren with a rather mysterious movement disorder can have hundreds of attacks every day in which they inexplicably make sudden movements or sudden changes in the speed of their movements. New evidence reported in an early online publication from the January 2012 inaugural issue of Cell Reports, the first open-access journal of Cell Press, provides an answer for them...Neurology / Neuroscience Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239414.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239414.phpA large, international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has identified the gene that causes a rare childhood neurological disorder called PKD/IC, or "paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia with infantile convulsions," a cause of epilepsy in babies and movement disorders in older children...Epilepsy Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239238.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239238.phpA combination of two common drugs, lamotrigine and valproate, is more effective in treating difficult-to control epilepsy than other anti-epileptic regimens, according to a University of Washington report published online this week in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology...Epilepsy Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239273.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239273.phpAccording to an investigation led by Dr...Epilepsy Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239165.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239165.phpAbout half of newborns who have seizures go on to have long-term intellectual and memory deficits and cognitive disorders such as autism, but why this occurs has been unknown...Autism Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239077.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/239077.phpResearchers at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) have developed a new method for detailed analyses of electrical activity in the brain. The method, recently published in Neuron, can help doctors and researcher to better interpret brain cell signals...Neurology / Neuroscience Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238668.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238668.phpEpilepsy drug-switching study shows that using more ethical control groups could be the way forward for testing both drug efficacy and safety For the first time, a new research methodology recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration has been used to demonstrate that converting patients from one anti-epileptic drug to another - in this case, lamotrigine extended-rel...Epilepsy Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238639.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238639.phpDravet syndrome is a severe genetic epilepsy that appears early in life. About 75 percent of cases can be attributed to mutations in the SCN1A gene encoding the sodium channel NaV1.1. The remaining patients with this syndrome are without a definitive molecular genetic diagnosis...Epilepsy Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238623.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238623.phpSeizures in women of childbearing age commonly show patterns of exacerbation that involve hormones as a factor. Investigators reported the favorable outcome of a multicenter randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial of progesterone therapy in reducing these perimenstrually exacerbated (catamenial) seizures...Epilepsy Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238622.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/238622.phpIn women of childbearing age with epilepsy, seizure exacerbation may occur either at the time of menstruation or ovulation...Epilepsy Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237774.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237774.phpAccording to new research published in Epilepsia, the journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), patients with epilepsy who were treated with older generation antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for extended periods may be at increased risk for developing atherosclerosis, a common disorder known as hardening of the arteries...Epilepsy Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237713.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237713.phpNew research reveals that patients with epilepsy who were treated for extended periods with older generation antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) may be at increased risk for developing atherosclerosis, a common disorder known as hardening of the arteries...Epilepsy Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237600.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237600.phpResearchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a flexible brain implant that could one day be used to treat epileptic seizures. In animal studies, the researchers used the device - a type of electrode array that conforms to the brain's surface - to take an unprecedented look at the brain activity underlying seizures...Epilepsy Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237499.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237499.phpOver time, epileptic seizures can lead to major health issues, including significant cognitive decline and even death, warns Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor, Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgeryand Psychiatryat NYU Langone Medical Center...Epilepsy Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237342.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/237342.phpBrain stimulation, already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, has now been shown to offer significant relief to patients with intractable seizures for whom drugs and other treatments have not worked...Parkinson's Disease Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/236712.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/236712.phpA drug treatment has been proven to prevent lesions from cerebral cavernous malformation - a brain blood vessel abnormality that can cause bleeding, epilepsy and stroke - for the first time in a new study...Epilepsy