Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Nov 2017
Randomized Controlled TrialComparison of lacosamide versus sodium valproate in status epilepticus: A pilot study.
The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of lacosamide (LCM) and sodium valproate (SVA) in lorazepam (LOR)-resistant SE. ⋯ In patients with LOR-resistant SE, both LCM and SVA have comparable efficacy and safety.
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Orbitofrontal epilepsy (OFE) is less known and is poorly characterized in comparison with temporal lobe epilepsy, partly because it is rare and possibly because it is unrecognized and therefore underestimated. ⋯ Orbitofrontal epilepsy should be suspected with sleep-related, hyperkinetic seizures with no specific aura, and frontotemporal interictal discharges. Several patients have nonmotor seizures with or without auras which may resemble temporal lobe seizures. Postoperative seizure outcome was favorable, but there is inherent bias as we only included patients with a seizure-free outcome if the MRI was negative. A larger study is required to address identified gaps in knowledge such as identifying discriminative features between medial and lateral OFE, evaluating the value of more recent diagnostic tools, and assessing the neuropsychological outcome of orbital epilepsy surgery.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Oct 2017
Health-related quality of life and emotional wellbeing improve in parents after their children have undergone epilepsy surgery - A prospective population-based study.
The objective was to compare parental health-related quality of life (HRQoL), anxiety, and depression at baseline and 2years after epilepsy surgery in a population-based series of children and young people who underwent surgery between 1995 and 1999 and to compare with population norms. Fifty mothers and 44 fathers of 50 children and young people (age: 1-20years) completed the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale at baseline and at follow-up. Changes in SF-36 and HAD scores between baseline and follow-up were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank test. ⋯ Parents of young people/children with seizure-free outcome were significantly more likely to have a reduction in depression scores than parents of young people/children with continued seizures. Many aspects of HRQoL and emotional wellbeing improved at 2-year follow-up for parents after epilepsy surgery on their children. There is a need to comprehensively identify factors associated with changes in parental HRQoL and emotional wellbeing to provide adequate support.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Aug 2017
Quality of life, mood and seizure control in patients with brain tumor related epilepsy treated with lacosamide as add-on therapy: A prospective explorative study with a historical control group.
Brain tumor-related epilepsy (BTRE) is often drug resistant and patients can be forced to take polytherapy that can adversely affect their quality of life (QoL). Lacosamide (LCM) is a new antiepileptic drug (AED) used as adjunctive therapy in patients with partial seizures with or without secondary generalization, with a favorable pharmacokinetic profile that seems to be effective and well tolerated. Therefore it represents a possible therapeutic choice for patients with BTRE. We propose a prospective study with a historical control group to evaluate the effect of LCM as add-on therapy on seizure control and quality of life in patients with BTRE. This study has been designed to test the superiority of Lacosamide over Levetiracetam as an add-on. We compared a prospective cohort of 25 patients treated with Lacosamide with a historical control group (n=19) treated with Levetiracetam as an add-on. ⋯ Comparing the LCM with the historical group treated with LEV in add-on, we observed that LCM seems to have a higher clinical efficacy than LEV. In our patients, we did not observe any significant changes in QoL tests, indicating stability in all quality of life domains explored, despite the objective worsening in their functional status. Although this is a small series with a relatively short follow-up, our data indicates that LCM in add-on in patients with BTRE appears to be as effective as LEV in add-on, without impact on mood and quality of life.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Aug 2017
Post-traumatic epilepsy associations with mental health outcomes in the first two years after moderate to severe TBI: A TBI Model Systems analysis.
Research suggests that there are reciprocal relationships between mental health (MH) disorders and epilepsy risk. However, MH relationships to post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) have not been explored. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess associations between PTE and frequency of depression and/or anxiety in a cohort of individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI who received acute inpatient rehabilitation. ⋯ Our data suggest that PTE is associated with MH outcomes 2years after TBI, findings whose significance may reflect reciprocal, biological, psychological, and/or experiential factors contributing to and resulting from both PTE and MH status post-TBI. Future work should consider temporal and reciprocal relationships between PTE and MH as well as if/how treatment of each condition influences biosusceptibility to the other condition.