Heron and colleagues (Ann Neurol 2004;55:595-596) identified three missense mutations in the Cav3.2 T-type calcium channel gene (CACNA1H) in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. None of the variants were associated with a specific epilepsy phenotype and were not found in patients with juvenile absence epilepsy or childhood absence epilepsy. Here, we introduced and functionally charact...

According to the American Epilepsy Society, more than three million Americans live with epilepsy [1]. Availability of numerous antiepileptic drugs has not substantially reduced the proportion of patients with medically refractory epilepsy. Their quality of life and therapeutic response to currently available medications remains poor. Patients need new treatments that control seizures and have f...

According to the American Epilepsy Society, more than three million Americans live with epilepsy [1]. Availability of numerous antiepileptic drugs has not substantially reduced the proportion of patients with medically refractory epilepsy. Their quality of life and therapeutic response to currently available medications remains poor. Patients need new treatments that control seizures and have f...

According to the American Epilepsy Society, more than three million Americans live with epilepsy [1]. Availability of numerous antiepileptic drugs has not substantially reduced the proportion of patients with medically refractory epilepsy. Their quality of life and therapeutic response to currently available medications remains poor. Patients need new treatments that control seizures and have f...

A big advance in epileptology has been the recognition of syndromes with distinct aetiology, clinical and EEG features, treatment and prognosis. A prime and common example of this is rolandic epilepsy that is well known by the general paediatricians for over 50 years, thus allowing a precise diagnosis that predicts an excellent prognosis. However, rolandic is not the only benign childhood epile...

BACKGROUND There is increasing recognition that establishing a core set of outcomes to be evaluated and reported in trials of interventions for particular conditions will improve the usefulness of health research. There is no established core outcome set for childhood epilepsy. The aim of this work is to select a core outcome set to be used in evaluative research of interventions for children w...

The authors compared the frequency of epilepsy onset in perimenarche with epilepsy onset in other childhood periods in 94 postmenarchial patients aged <55 years. Seizure onset was higher for the 12 to 15 year age bracket than for other ages and clustered around menarche. Epilepsy began during the year of menarche in 17% of patients vs 5.5% expected (p < 0.001), and during +/-2 years of menarche...

‘Epilepsy’ is not a single disease entity. Epilepsies are hundreds of diseases with different causes, natural histories and prognoses, requiring different short-term and long-term management. Using the inclusive diagnostic label of ‘epilepsy’ instead of a precise seizure and syndrome categorisation endangers patients with epileptic seizures both medically and socially5. It is medically incorrec...