View clinical trials related to Epilepsy.
Filter by:Knowing the impact that the use of ESL as adjunctive treatment of partial epilepsy has on cardiovascular risk factors measured by biochemical and ultrasound parameters compared with enzyme-inducing AEDs.
Epilepsy is a multifaceted disorder and a major public health problem. In addition to recurrent and unpredictable seizures, abnormalities in psychiatric status, cognition and social-adaptive behaviors are potential major sources of disability in children and adults with epilepsy disorders. Recent studies have unequivocally documented raised psychiatric comorbidities in children with epilepsy, particularly emotional regulation disorders such as depression and anxiety, as compared to both the general population and the children with other medical disorders, neurological and non-neurological. A prevalence of 12% to 35% has been reported, compared to 3-8% in the general population. Major advances have begun to uncover the potential mediators of emotional regulation disorders and social comorbidities in epilepsy, but important gaps remain in the early detection, treatment and prevention of these disorders. A very small number of investigations have examined children with epilepsy at or near the time of diagnosis. This is a time during which the effects of chronic epilepsy, potential averse social effects of epilepsy, and other complicating aetiological effects are minimized. Epilepsy syndromes provide a useful framework for considering the risk and type of emotional dysregulation comorbidities. But variability within and across syndromes needs to be taken into account thus requiring a strict phenotyping by specialists in the filed of pediatric epileptology. Retrospective studies, usually including patients with chronic epilepsies and suffering from a mixed spectrum of epilepsy syndromes introduce biases leading to rather disparate findings. Are such disorders the result of common physiopathological mechanisms, which precede the development of the epilepsy? The link between an underlying brain disorder and psychiatric comorbidities has emerged in recent literature, with evidence based on studies in adults, suggesting bidirectional relations between epilepsy and neurobehavioural comorbidities. Emotional regulation disorders can follow the onset of epilepsy, but they can also precede it, thus serving as a possible risk factor. The clinical implication of such a bidirectional association is that neurobehavioural comorbidities might be present at diagnosis and even before epilepsy onset. There is a need for greater understanding of the causes of these conditions in younger people. The degree to which specific epilepsy syndromes are associated with the relative risk of emotional dysregulation disorders in children with new- or recent-onset (within six months prior to enrolment) has rarely been comprehensively examined and represents the focus of the current investigation. The investigators study will be based on a prospectively recruited cohort of 280 children/adolescents with recently diagnosed epilepsy. All participating centres dispose of the necessary competences for a precise diagnosis of the epilepsy syndromes and the tools for a per case appropriate aetiology screening. Following a first seizure children are usually first examined at hospital based emergency departments. Prompt referral to the epilepsy teams participating at the present study will significantly reduce the population biases and shortcuts encountered in studies that recruited patients with chronic epilepsy followed in tertiary care epilepsy units. The investigators expect their results to provide a greater understanding of both the shared and the unique features of emotional regulation disorders, in relation to specific epilepsy categories defined on the basis of the underlying physiopathological mechanisms. Such knowledge will also assist clinicians and families in the planning of both diagnosis and management resources.
The purpose of this study is to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of multiple rising doses of TAK-935 in healthy participants.
Background: - The blood-brain barrier separates the brain from the rest of the body. Epilepsy is a neurological disease that causes seizures. It can affect this barrier. Researchers think a contrast agent called mangafodipir might be better able to show areas of the brain that epilepsy affects. Objective: - To see if mangafodipir is well tolerated and safe. To see if it can show, on an MRI, areas of the brain that epilepsy affects. Eligibility: - People ages 18-60 who: - Have epilepsy not controlled by drugs - Prior or concurrent enrollment in 18-N-0066 is required Design: - Participants will be screened with: - Medical history - Physical exam - Blood and urine tests - Participants will have up to 6 visits in 1-3 months. Those with epilepsy will have an inpatient stay lasting 2-10 days. Visits may include: - Video-EEG monitoring for participants with epilepsy - An IV catheter put in place: a needle guides a thin plastic tube into an arm vein. - Getting mangafodipir through the IV. - 5 MRI scans over a 10-day period: a magnetic field and radio waves take pictures of the brain. Participants lie on a table that slides into a metal cylinder. They are in the cylinder for 45-90 minutes, lying still for up to 10 minutes at a time. The scanner makes loud knocking sounds. Participants will get earplugs. - A final MRI at least 2 weeks after receiving mangafodipir. Gadolinium is given through an IV catheter.
Background. Anecdotal reports and uncontrolled studies have described an association between generic substitution of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and adverse events, including loss of seizure control. Although these results are likely to be influenced by methodological bias, they have led to a strong opposition, among physicians and patients, to the use of generic products in epilepsy. Objectives. The primary objective is to assess potential risks associated with substitution of the currently taken AED product with an equivalent product, using as endpoint changes in serum drug levels at steady-state after substitution compared with baseline. Secondary objectives will be the assessment of inter-subject variability in serum drug concentration on an unchanged treatment schedule, and evaluation of potential short-term changes in seizure control and adverse events rate. Methods. The study will use an experimental randomized open-label non-inferiority design. The population will consist of 200 adults stabilized on chronic treatment with carbamazepine, valproic acid, topiramate, oxcarbazepine, levetiracetam or lamotrigine and admitted to hospital for diagnostic evaluation or other indications, with no expected treatment changes during the subsequent 5 to 6 days. Patients will be randomized to two groups. One group will continue to receive the AED products used before enrollment (brand or generic), whereas the other group will be switched to an alternative equivalent product. Dosing schedules of the AEDs being tested as well as comedications will be unaltered throughout the 6- to 7day period of the study. Serum AED levels (mean of two values obtained at peak and trough, respectively in the evening and the next morning) will be measured on day 1 (baseline) and 5 days post-randomization (6 days for patients receiving AEDs with half-lives above 12 h). The primary outcome endpoint will be the proportion of patients who, post-randomization, show a greater than 25% change in serum drug concentration compared with baseline. Secondary endpoints will include comparison of distributions of rough serum concentration changes between groups, other pharmacokinetic parameters, time to first seizure, total number of seizures, and adverse events.
Evaluate the long-term clinical effectiveness and safety of the PINS vagus nerve stimulator to patients with refractory epilepsy.
To characterize the functional outcomes and prognostic factors for convulsive status epilepticus (SE) and to further develop and validate a simple and practicable scoring system for outcome prediction.
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.
Approximately a fourth of children with seizures do not respond adequately to available therapy. Ketogenic therapy has a long history as treatment for intractable epilepsy, but there is no agreement concerning how it works and what is the best way to administer it. This natural history study will collect data pertaining to both questions.
Epilepsy, a condition where individuals are prone to recurrent epileptic seizures, is the most common chronic neurological disorder in children. Epilepsy onset is most common in the first two years of life and is associated with poor prognosis for seizure control and neurodevelopmental outcome. The ketogenic diet (KD) is a medically supervised diet that is high in fat and restricted in carbohydrates and protein. KD therapy has shown to be an effective treatment for seizures in children with epilepsy older than two. Associated benefits include: a reduced requirement for routine and emergency antiepileptic drugs (AED) and fewer seizure related hospital admissions. Although reports suggest that KD therapy improves seizures in younger children there is no high quality trial data that demonstrates effectiveness and safety in this age group. The KD is resource intensive, requiring dietetic and physician time; data is required to justify expansion of services to cater for the apparent need. The investigators therefore propose a prospective multicentre randomised trial to investigate the effectiveness and safety of the KD in children with epilepsy under the age of 2, who have failed to respond to two or more AEDs. Children will be randomly assigned to either receive the KD or further AEDs. The allocated treatment will be started after a 2week baseline period, and it's effectiveness assessed after 8 weeks. Seizure diaries will be used to record seizures and related events, a questionnaire will be used to assess diet tolerance; also growth and blood biochemistry will be monitored. The information obtained from this study is necessary to optimise choices in epilepsy treatment, aiming to improve outcomes and thus determine whether and when the KD should should be used.