Controlled clinical trials and routine clinical practice demon-strate that levetiracetam is effective as add-on therapy and appears to allow for withdrawal to monotherapy in patients who respond well in the add-on setting. In pivotal clinical trials of adjunctive therapy with levetiracetam 1000 to 3000 mg/day (pooled data), 40% to 54% of patients experienced a 50% or greater reduction in seizur...

PURPOSE To evaluate the anticonvulsant effect of the novel high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) method on patients with refractory lateral frontal lobe epilepsy. The effects of HD-tDCS on working memory were also examined. METHOD 10 adult patients with intractable lateral frontal lobe epilepsy were studied. A central cathode electrode was placed on the epileptogen...

We describe a phenomenological model of seizure initiation, consisting of a bistable switch between stable fixed point and stable limit-cycle attractors. We determine a quasi-analytic formula for the exit time problem for our model in the presence of noise. This formula--which we equate to seizure frequency--is then validated numerically, before we extend our study to explore the combined effec...

Various epilepsy surgery procedures can be used to cure or reduce seizure frequency. Most procedures are either designed to resect or disconnect the area of the brain where seizures originate or spread. Epilepsy surgery is a procedure that either removes or isolates the area of the brain where seizures originate. Epilepsy surgery can significantly improve seizure control in a carefully selected...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether EEG source localization in the frequency domain, using the FFT dipole approximation (Lehmann, D. and Michel, C.M. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol., 1990, 76: 271-276), would be useful for quantifying the frequency content of epileptic seizure activity. Between one and 7 extracranially recorded seizures were analyzed in each of 7 patients with m...

Detection of pre-seizure signs in epileptic signals may help patients to survive the seizure with minimal damage. This study aims detect patterns using EEG datasets five patients. The signals' maximum power spectral density (PSD) and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) are investigated. PSDs all patients' calculated, subbands PSD examined. It is observed that 95%, 85%, 75%, 80% channels sum delt...

PURPOSE To present the interim findings of the Epilepsy Birth Control Registry (EBCR) regarding the impact of various contraceptive methods on seizures, stratified by antiepileptic drug (AED) type. METHODS This is an observational study that reports interim findings on the first 750 subjects. RESULTS There are significantly greater relative risks (RR) for both seizure increase and decrease ...

Introduction: Epilepsy is a group of chronic neurological disorders characterized by seizures. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of pretreatment with Satureja bachtiarica essential oil in preventing epilepsy. Methods: In this experimental study, 50 mice were randomly assigned to five groups of 10 each. The control group received normal saline plus tween80 and, 30 min ...

PURPOSE The effectiveness of VNS was evaluated in thirty-nine encephalopatic patients with drug-resistant epilepsy characterized by multiple seizures and drop attacks. Twenty-five patients were affected by severe epilepsy with multiple independent spike foci (SE-MISF) and fourteen patients by Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). METHOD Changes in seizure frequency, cognition, adaptive behaviour and...

Accurate localization of the epileptic seizure onset zones (SOZs) is crucial for successful surgery, which usually depends on the information obtained from intracranial electroencephalography (IEEG) recordings. The visual criteria and univariate methods of analyzing IEEG recordings have not always produced clarity on the SOZs for resection and ultimate seizure freedom for patients. Here, to con...