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News: February 14, 2012
Surgery Effective for Tough-to-Treat Epilepsy
TUESDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Surgery can significantly improve seizure control and quality of life among people with epilepsy, according to a study stretching over 26 years. "This study may be the longest follow-up of epilepsy surgery patie...
New Guidelines Issued for Combining HIV, Seizure Meds
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Physicians need to take care when prescribing seizure medication to HIV/AIDS patients to prevent harmful interactions between drugs, experts warn. The cautionary note from the American Academy of Neurology (AA...
Epileptic Seizures May Worsen During Menstrual Cycle
SATURDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Seizures among women of childbearing age with epilepsy may worsen during menstruation or ovulation, researchers have found. In the study, investigators at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at the University of ...
3-D TV Doesn't Raise Seizure Risk for Kids With Epilepsy: Study
SUNDAY, Dec. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Children with epilepsy do not appear to face an increased risk for seizures while watching 3-D TV, a new German-Austrian study suggests. However, the results did reveal that about one in five of these children is...
Autistic Teens With Epilepsy Often Light-Sensitive
MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Teenagers with autism who also have epilepsy often suffer from photosensitivity, or light sensitivity, researchers say. The combination means that certain behaviors common among autistic kids -- such as flapping ...
Kids With Epilepsy Should Get Screened for Autism, Developmental Delays
MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Children seen in epilepsy clinics should be screened for development delay and autism because the conditions often occur together, new research suggests. Researchers at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago ask...
Fetal Exposure to Epilepsy Drug Might Raise Autism Risk: Study
MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Children exposed to the epilepsy drug valproate have a nearly three times higher risk of having an autism spectrum disorder, new research finds. Researchers in Denmark used national birth data that included nearl...
For Many, Epilepsy Surgery Effective Long-Term
THURSDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of the people who undergo surgery for epilepsy remain free of seizures 10 years later, a new study finds. Current practice is to treat patients with medication, and only when drugs can't control se...
Researchers Find Link Between Epilepsy, Schizophrenia Risk
TUESDAY, Sept. 20 (HealthDay News) -- People affected by epilepsy are nearly eight times more likely than those without it to develop schizophrenia, and those with schizophrenia are also six times more likely to have epilepsy than people who are n...
Seizure Disorder Diagnosed Later in Veterans Than Civilians: Study
TUESDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Veterans who suffer emotion-related seizures that are not caused by epilepsy can go undiagnosed for much longer than civilians with the condition, according to a new study. This condition -- known as psychogeni...
New Dog Gene May Shed Light on Childhood Epilepsy
FRIDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) -- An epilepsy gene, called LGI2, has been found in Lagotto Romagnolos -- a specific breed of dog known for truffle hunting, according to a new study. Researchers say the newly identified gene has enabled the devel...
Potiga Approved for Adult Epileptic Seizures
MONDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Potiga (ezogabine) tablets have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat partial epileptic seizures in adults, the agency said Monday. Partial seizures are the most common seizure in peopl...
Epilepsy Drugs' Risk of Birth Defects May Be Dose-Dependent
SUNDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Four of the most frequently prescribed epilepsy drugs appear to increase the risk of serious birth defects when taken early in pregnancy, a new study finds. And the higher the dosage, the greater the risk, the in...
Many With Autism Also Have Treatment-Resistant Epilepsy: Study
WEDNESDAY, April 20 (HealthDay News) -- Many people with autism also have epilepsy that doesn't respond to treatment, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at the medical records of 127 children and adults aged 3 to 49 with autism who had had o...
Having Both Autism and Epilepsy Linked to Raised Death Rates
FRIDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- People with both autism and epilepsy have a much higher death rate than those with autism alone, a new study finds. Researchers examined brain tissue donated to the Autism Speaks Autism Tissue Program, and foun...
People With Epilepsy More Prone to Brain Tumors: Study
FRIDAY, April 8 (HealthDay News) -- People with epileptic seizures are much more likely than others to be diagnosed with a brain tumor, a new study indicates. The findings suggest that epileptic seizures may indicate the presence of a very early-s...
Gender May Play Role in Psych Symptoms in Kids With Epilepsy
FRIDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Children with epilepsy are at increased risk for psychiatric symptoms and gender may play a role in the types of psychiatric problems they develop, a new study has found. Researchers analyzed data from 14,699 N...
Chopin's Hallucinations Likely Caused by Epilepsy
TUESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Epilepsy was the likely cause of hallucinations experienced by 19th century Polish composer Frederic Chopin, according to a new study. Researchers reached the conclusion that Chopin had temporal lobe epilepsy a...
Epilepsy Drugs May Raise Fracture Risk in Older Adults
TUESDAY, Jan. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Epilepsy drugs increase older adults' risk for bone fractures, a new study shows. Canadian researchers analyzed the medical records of 15,792 people 50 and older who'd had non-traumatic fractures between April ...
Common Epilepsy Drug Taken During Pregnancy Might Raise Spina Bifida Risk
FRIDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women with epilepsy who are taking carbamazepine (Tegretol) to control seizures may be at a slightly increased risk of having an infant with spina bifida, a new study finds. Spina bifida is a condition i...
Brain Injury May Raise Soldier's Epilepsy Risk
TUESDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- A wartime brain injury may increase a soldier's risk of epilepsy even years later, a new study finds. "Not only do combat veterans with a penetrating traumatic brain injury have high rates of epilepsy, but the ...
Combo Vaccine Raises Risk of Fever-Related Seizures in Kids
MONDAY, June 28 (HealthDay News) -- Toddlers who receive the combination MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and varicella) vaccine are at higher risk of having a febrile seizure a week to 10 days after receiving the shot than children who get the MMR a...
Missing DNA Linked to Wide Range of Epilepsy Disorders
THURSDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- People who are missing large chunks of DNA on chromosome 16 have a greatly increased risk for developing epilepsy, researchers say. "We found that the presence of this genetic variant is one of the strongest ...
Gene Mutation Ups Risk of Sudden Death in People with Epilepsy
WEDNESDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- A mutation in a gene called Kv1.1 appears to be associated with irregular heart beat and sudden death in people with epilepsy, a new study finds. People with epilepsy who are otherwise healthy are 10 times m...
Implant Shows Promise for Hard-to-Treat Epilepsy
THURSDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- Deep-brain electrical stimulation reduced the frequency of epileptic seizures in people who had not responded to other treatments, a new study has found. The electrical stimulation came from a pacemaker-like ...
TV Shows Often Botch Proper Seizure Responses
MONDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News) -- TV medical shows aren't the place to learn how to provide proper first aid for a person suffering a seizure, a new study says. Canadian researchers watched some popular medical dramas -- "House, M.D.," "Grey's A...
Antidepressants May Change Your Personality
MONDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Taking antidepressants may not only help alleviate depression, but could make you more extraverted and less neurotic, new research suggests. Extraversion, which is associated with positive emotions, is believed t...
Gene Mutation Linked to Fever-Induced Seizures
FRIDAY, Sept. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Mutations in a sodium channel gene are associated with fever-induced seizures and a severe form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome in children 6 months and younger, a new study has found. American and Dutch res...
Study Links Epilepsy to Brain Protein
THURSDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) -- New research has uncovered possible causes of epilepsy related to signals in the brain that go haywire. It suggests that when a certain protein is missing in the brains of mice, the animals have epileptic sei...
Experts Urge Cognitive Testing of Kids With Epilepsy
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Children recently diagnosed with epilepsy should have their language, memory, learning and other cognitive skills tested because they're at increased risk for problems, say U.S. researchers. The recommendatio...
Seizures, Not Epilepsy Itself, May Raise Birth Risks
MONDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Epileptic seizures during pregnancy increase the likelihood of premature and small babies, says a new study. Taiwanese researchers compared children born to 1,016 women with epilepsy with those born to 8,128 wom...
Scientists Find Way to Stop Epilepsy in Mice
TUESDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Blocking a gene defect prevents epilepsy from being passed from adult mice to their offspring, a finding that may help in efforts to develop new treatments for people with epilepsy, British researchers say. The ...
Catastrophic Epilepsy Caused by Defect in One Gene
WEDNESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- A mutation in a single gene causes catastrophic epilepsy, U.S. scientists say. And that finding, they say, could lead to treatments or a cure for the disorder. People with catastrophic epilepsy suffer severe m...
Drug Shows Promise Against Childhood Epilepsy
MONDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- A drug commonly used to prevent rejection in organ transplant patients may be effective against childhood epilepsy, animal studies suggest. The drug, rapamycin (also known as sirolimus), appears to block seizure...
Pregnant Women With Epilepsy Should Avoid Valproate
MONDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- Despite recent concerns about fetal malformations linked to the anti-seizure medication valproate, most women with epilepsy can expect to have a relatively uneventful pregnancy with careful planning and prepara...
Epilepsy Drug Impairs Baby's Intelligence
WEDNESDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- When a pregnant woman takes the epilepsy medication valproate, her child's intelligence may be lowered for at least three years, and possibly beyond, a new study suggests. Reporting in the April 16 issue of ...
Head Injury While Young Ups Epilepsy Risk
MONDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Children and young adults who suffer a traumatic brain injury are at high risk of developing epilepsy for more than 10 years after the injury, Danish researchers report. But there's good news, too: treatments ca...
Gene Discovered for Most Common Form of Epilepsy
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have linked a genetic variation to a common form of epilepsy in children, potentially paving the way toward greater insight into the disorder. "It's the first step toward developing a diagnostic t...
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