View clinical trials related to Epilepsy.
Filter by:The aim of the study is to compare the effect of group-cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)versus treatment as usual with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline, in patients with diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and depressive disorder.
The investigators are undertaking the first European Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) for epilepsy surgery in children with FCD type II, to prospectively evaluate the role of the KD prior to surgery in improving seizure outcome. The investigators will evaluate the role of KD as a disease-modifying treatment to achieve seizure control and improve neurodevelopment and quality of life. Children age 3 - 15 years with pharmacoresistant epilepsy believed to be the result of focal cortical dysplasia type II, considered to be surgically treatable, will be randomised to either receive 6m treatment presurgery with a ketogenic diet, or to proceed direct to surgery (no pretreatment). Primary outcome will be the time to achieve a period of 6 months of seizure freedom from the date of randomisation. Tissue resected at surgery will also be evaluated with regard to the degree of any methylation of DNA.
The identification of the epileptogenic zone (EZ) during pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy presurgical assessment frequently requires intracranial recordings like stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG). Cortical direct electrical stimulation (DES) is commonly used during SEEG for functional mapping or to induce seizure. However, the recording of seizures is sometimes insufficient to circumscribe the EZ and development of new biomarkers is necessary. The cortex within the EZ is thought to be hyperexcitable. The "paired pulses" paradigm, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), allows determining the hemispheric cortical excitability level. The investigators hypothesize that paired pulses DES during SEEG could provide useful information for EZ identification.
The primary goal of the study is to assess the effect of pre-oxygenation on oxygen and carbon dioxide levels during seizures in patients admitted at the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). The investigators hypothesize that providing oxygen prior to seizures will help eliminate the drops in changes seen during seizures, such as the drop in oxygen saturation and increase in carbon dioxide levels. Research will be done on patients that are admitted to the EMU specifically to have seizures occur and to be recorded on video electroencephalography (vEEG), and the only research intervention will be the use of oxygen prior to some of the seizures. The importance of this research relates to the phenomenon of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy patients (SUDEP). SUDEP cases are typically patients with epilepsy who are found dead by their families in the morning, without a clear cause for death. The risk of SUDEP is as high as 9.3 per 1000 person-years (Shorvon and Tomson 2011). There may be multiple mechanisms for SUDEP to occur, however a leading hypothesis is a decrease in ventilation during the seizure leading to hypoxia. Blood oxygen saturation levels have been found to decrease significantly in 25-50% of patients during or shortly after a seizure while being monitored in hospitals. In rare situations, a significantly lowered oxygen level may trigger a cascade of events from which the body may not be able to recover, leading to SUDEP. In animal models, providing oxygen prior to seizures occurring has been shown to eliminate oxygen desaturation, but more importantly eliminate mortality in animals prone to death due to seizures. Pre-oxygenation is a standard procedure during rapid-sequence induction anesthesia as it reduces the risk of oxygen desaturation during the apneic period of the procedure. On room air, the estimated duration of safe apnea is 1 minute, but this can increase to 8 minutes following pre-treatment with high FiO2 (Weingart and Levitan 2012). This is primarily due to oxygen replacing nitrogen within alveoli, creating a reservoir of oxygen within the lungs from which transfer to the bloodstream can continue despite the lack of ventilation. The apneic episode during seizures should benefit from the same principle. The main purpose of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) is to evaluate patients to better characterize seizures, to identify the main seizure focus. In addition to standard EEG with electrodes on the scalp, some patients require invasive localization of the epileptic focus by surgically placing electrodes within the skull (often referred to as GRID patients) on or within the brain, with the goal of being able to resect the area that is causing seizures. To identify where seizure originate electrically, it requires that seizures occur during the vEEG procedure. To provoke seizures, medications are typically lowered, and both partial seizures and those with secondary generalization to full tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures will occur. Prior research has shows that oxygen desaturation below 90% occurs with some complex partial seizures, but hypoxia is more common and more profound with GTCs. Some centers use oxygen saturation and CO2 monitors as their standard of care, and at NYULMC the investigators also have the capability for both for clinical usage. Oxygen is not currently a mandated standard-of-care, but is often provided by nasal prongs following seizures as part of the post-ictal nursing care, though there is no outcome data to support its use. It is unknown whether pre-treatment with oxygen will reduce the rate of oxygen desaturations clinically, as seen in animal models, and this is the goal of this research project.
This is an expanded access use of Stiripentol in Dravet Syndrome or epileptic encephalopathies associated with sodium channel mutations who have failed other drugs in an effort to give them the best chance at seizure control and quality of life. As a treatment protocol and not a research study, children will only be monitored on a clinical basis for seizure improvement and side effects predominantly by parent and caregiver report.
This study is designed to evaluate the high-frequency range deep brain oscillations (HFO) as pathologic markers in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation for epilepsy or Parkinson disease. Newly developed technology allows for the chronic recording of these brain signals at the same time as clinical stimulation is occuring. We will learn both whether these HFO correlate with disease activity and whether the HFO change in response to ongoing stimulation (potentially giving insight into the underlying mechanism of action of DBS).
The purpose of this pilot project is to see if a supplemental form of dietary gangliosides can serve as a potential treatment for the rare metabolic condition called ganglioside GM3 synthase deficiency.
Subjects will be asked to substitute their usual vitamin and mineral supplement/s with FruitiVits for seven consecutive days.
To investigate the potential antiepileptic effects of cannabidiol (GWP42003-P) in children and young adults with Dravet syndrome.
To evaluate the efficacy of GWP42003-P as adjunctive treatment in reducing the number of drop seizures when compared with placebo, in participants with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS).