View clinical trials related to Epilepsy.
Filter by:Despite the importance of birth control to women of reproductive age, there has been little formal investigation of the safety and effectiveness of birth control methods in women with epilepsy. To remedy this, doctors from Harvard and Columbia University Medical Schools have developed a website that offers a survey to help us gain more knowledge and some educational material that will be updated regularly to provide the latest information. The ultimate goal is to develop guidelines for the selection of safe and effective birth control methods and to make sure that the best forms of birth control become available to women with epilepsy in all communities of our society. Go to www.epilepsybirthcontrolregistry.com take our survey and then catch up on the latest information about birth control for women with epilepsy.
It has been estimated that 22 - 32% of people with mental retardation or learning disability have co-existing epilepsy. Despite such high prevalence and although there may be particular concerns over the effects of treatment on behaviour and cognition in this population, few studies have specifically addressed these concerns. Topiramate (TPM) is one of the modern antiepileptic drugs that has been approved for the treatment of a broad range of seizure types in both children and adults. There is evidence of associated improvement in behaviour with treatment but data is conflicting. The investigators aim to further study the effect of TPM on seizure control and behaviour using the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) which has been applied in similar patient populations and is widely adopted locally to assess the behaviour of people with mental retardation. This is a naturalistic, open label, single arm prospective study of 16-week in duration. Eligible adult patients will be initiated on TPM. Patients will be evaluated at baseline, end of weeks 4, 10 and 16. At each visit seizure control and any adverse events will be assessed. Behaviour will be assessed using SIB-R (Chinese version) at baseline and each study visit. At the end of the study period the patient's overall improvement will be rated by the investigator and the caregiver using global evaluation scales. Patients with improvement will be maintained on TPM after the end of the study period Titration schedule Topiramate will be administered orally as per usual clinical practice. Treatment will be initiated at 25 mg daily for 1 week, and increased in 25- to 50-mg increments at one- to two-weekly intervals, to an initial target dose of 100 - 200 mg daily in 2 divided doses according to each individual's response. Further dose adjustment can be made in response to further seizures or emergence of adverse events..
The aim of the study is to establish tDCS as a prognostic tool to predict VNS therapy outcome among patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy.
The NIH grant has funded the development of a physiological brain atlas registry that will allow us to significantly improve the data collectioin and use of physiological data into a normalized brain volume. This initially was used to improve DBS implants for Parkinson's Disease, Dystonia, Essential Tremor, and OCD, but now includes data acquired during all stereotactic brain procedures.
The principal purpose of the study is to determine the efficacy and safety of Levetiracetam versus Carbamazepine, intended as the number of patients free from crisis during the whole period of treatment, in patients affected by post stroke late onset crisis.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation of SV2A expression in surgically removed tumour and tumour-surrounding tissue of glioma patients suffering from epilepsy with their clinical response to levetiracetam.
This study aims improving the outcome after brain resective surgery of epileptic patients by improving presurgical evaluations. In particular the specific goal is to evaluate the ability of non invasive neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography) to provide presurgical maps of the functional areas of the brain and of the epileptogenic networks.
The investigators will check the serum of epilepsy patients for antibodies against glutamate receptors and double stranded DNA. They will characterise the patients (by the kind of epilepsy, autoimmune disease comorbidity, and cognitive profile).
The hypothesis is that the characteristics of extended release Depakote will allow overnight conversion of immediate release to extended release form of Depakote. This has been tested successfully in younger patients but not in individuals over the age of 60. We will include individuals between 60 and 80 years old.
The purpose of this study is to develop a technique for the intraoperative identification of human functional and epileptiform cortex using intrinsic signal imaging. The investigators propose that the ability to optically monitor neuronal activity in a large area of cortex in "real-time" will be a more sensitive and time-saving method than the electrical methods currently available. The applications of this technique will not only theoretically increase the safety and efficacy of many of neurosurgical procedures, but will be useful as an investigational tool to study human cortical physiology.