Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Feb 2014
Use of the Sleep Apnea Scale of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SA-SDQ) in adults with epilepsy.
A growing body of literature supports the importance of sleep comorbidities in epilepsy. The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adults with epilepsy exceeds that of the general population, and its presence adversely impacts seizure control in some cases. The Sleep Apnea Scale of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SA-SDQ) is a 12-item screening instrument generally used in clinical research. One prior study suggested modified cutoffs for the prediction of OSA in adults with epilepsy using this instrument. Our purpose was to further investigate the validity of the SA-SDQ in adults with epilepsy. ⋯ Our work confirms the validity of the SA-SDQ as a screening instrument for OSA in clinical research involving adults with epilepsy. Further, our findings support the use of cutoffs lower than those applied to the general population and a single cutoff score (25) for predicting any severity of OSA in adults with epilepsy.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Feb 2014
Why do people Google epilepsy? An infodemiological study of online behavior for epilepsy-related search terms.
Millions of people worldwide use the Internet daily as a source of health information. Google is the most popular search engine and is used by patients and physicians to search for online health-related information. This study aimed to evaluate changes in web search behavior occurring in English-speaking countries over time for terms related to epilepsy and epileptic seizures. ⋯ The volume of searches for the term "epilepsy SUDEP" was found to be enormously increased over time. Most people appear to use search engines to look for terms related to epilepsy to obtain information on seizure symptoms, possibly to aid initial self-diagnosis. Fears and worries about epileptic seizures and news on celebrities with epilepsy seem to be major factors that influence online search behavior.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Feb 2014
Lesion side matters - an fMRI study on the association between neural correlates of watching dynamic fearful faces and their evaluation in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
Most studies assessing facial affect recognition in patients with TLE reported emotional disturbances in patients with TLE. Results from the few fMRI studies assessing neural correlates of affective face processing in patients with TLE are divergent. Some, but not all, found asymmetrical mesiotemporal activations, i.e., stronger activations within the hemisphere contralateral to seizure onset. ⋯ Although we found stronger activations within the contralateral mesial temporal lobe in the majority of all patients, our results suggest that only in the event of left-sided mesiotemporal damage is the right mesial temporal lobe able to preserve intact facial fear recognition. In the event of right-sided mesiotemporal damage, fear recognition is disturbed. This underlines the hypothesis that the right amygdala is biologically predisposed to processing fear, and its function cannot be fully compensated in the event of right-sided mesiotemporal damage.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Feb 2014
Treatment with melatonin after status epilepticus attenuates seizure activity and neuronal damage but does not prevent the disturbance in diurnal rhythms and behavioral alterations in spontaneously hypertensive rats in kainate model of temporal lobe epilepsy.
Melatonin is involved in the control of circadian and seasonal rhythmicity, possesses potent antioxidant activity, and exerts a neuroprotective and anticonvulsant effect. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) are widely accepted as an experimental model of essential hypertension with hyperactivity, deficient sustained attention, and alterations in circadian autonomic profiles. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether melatonin treatment during epileptogenesis can prevent the deleterious consequences of status epilepticus (SE) in SHRs in the kainate (KA) model of temporal lobe of epilepsy (TLE). ⋯ However, melatonin was unable to affect the disturbed diurnal rhythms and behavioral changes associated with epilepsy, including the decreased anxiety level, depression, and impaired spatial memory. Melatonin reduced neuronal damage specifically in the CA1 area of the hippocampus and piriform cortex and decreased hippocampal serotonin (5-HT) levels both in control and epileptic SHRs. Although long-term melatonin treatment after SE shows a potential to attenuate seizure activity and neuronal loss, it is unable to restore epilepsy-associated behavioral abnormalities in SHRs.