BACKGROUND In Belgium, new and costly antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are only reimbursed as second-line treatment, after documented treatment with conventional and cheaper AEDs has failed. The objective of this study was to describe the treatment of epilepsy in Belgium and to analyze the impact of the reimbursement restrictions on the choice of AEDs. METHODS Between May and June 2003, a sample of...

Photosensitivity is a typical feature of photosensitive epilepsy which is usually considered a form of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Partial seizures featuring visual symptoms are rarely reported in photosensitive epilepsy. In this study, we describe 13 neurologically normal patients in whom daytime seizures were always induced by television and began with elementary visual hallucinations, f...

Background: Patients with epilepsy have relatively higher risk for psychopathology and cognitive impairment. The research data indicate that the cognitive impairment and deterioration are due to associated brain damage and not attributable to epilepsy. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the cognitive functions in patients with adequate seizure control, without obvious brain damag...

Epilepsy is a common pediatric neurologic disorder that is difficult to manage in a substantial portion of children. Levetiracetam (LEV) is a novel antiepileptic drug (AED) that has recently been approved as add-on treatment for various seizure types in epilepsy populations that include children: for refractory partial seizures in epilepsy patients >/=4 years old, for myoclonic seizures in juve...

INTRODUCTION One-third of children with epilepsy are classified as having a cryptogenic localization related epilepsy (CLRE). In cohort studies CLRE is often grouped together with either symptomatic localization related epilepsy (SLRE) or idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). Therefore, this categorization is not specific enough and will not lead to prognostic or treatment information. We obje...

We retrospectively reviewed the electroencephalogram (EEG) reports of patients at our EEG lab from the years 2005-2010 to identify patients referred from the epilepsy clinic, with a confirmed diagnosis of idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) by EEG criteria. We sought to report our experience in UAE of how often patients with IGE are placed on nonspecific antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) before bein...

BACKGROUND Automatisms are well recognized to occur in complex partial seizures; however, their occurrence in generalized epilepsies is not always appreciated. There has been considerable debate regarding the nature, triggers, and timing of automatisms in absence seizures. OBJECTIVES To examine the frequency and nature of automatisms in new-onset absence seizures and assess the influence of t...

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which patients have recurrent seizures. Seizures occur in conjunction with abnormal electrical brain activity which can be recorded by the electroencephalogram (EEG). Often, this abnormal brain activity consists of high amplitude regular spike-wave oscillations as opposed to low amplitude irregular oscillations in the non-seizure state. Active brain stimul...