Articles related to EPILEPSY/SEIZURES

It wasn’t carpal tunnel. It wasn’t just anxiety, and Ed wasn’t having a stroke. Even after a complete neurological assessment, it wasn’t “mild cognitive impairment.” For months, Ed’s life was plagued with psychiatric and movement disorders that puzzled his wife and his physicians. Read the narrative about how Ed was finally diagnosed, what happened next, and where he is now.

Of the four most commonly prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in the UK, carbamazepine wasn’t significantly associated with Parkinson’s, but three AEDs did have a significant relationship, including lamotrigine, levetiracetam, and sodium valproate.

This prospective cohort study measured cardiac arrhythmias in patients with chronic drug-resistant epilepsy. Using subcutaneous cardiac monitors programmed to record episodes of tachycardia, bradycardia, or asystole ≥3 seconds, 90% of study patients had episodes of sustained tachycardia, 25% had bradycardia and nearly 10% had asystole.

In this multicenter study, adult patients with status epilepticus were randomized into levetiracetam (LEV) or fosphenytoin (FPHT) as a second-line treatment after diazepam. The authors conclude that LEV may be recommended as a second-line treatment for SE along with phenytoin/FPHT.

It is well recognized that about 30% of people with epilepsy are resistant to dual drug therapy and that selection of a second or later drug is based more on experience than empirical evidence. Drs. Fields and Marcuse of the Icahn School of Medicine discuss the current status of research and what variables will help guide antileptic selection in resistant cases.

Reported neurologic complications of monkeypox include headaches and mood disturbances, and more rarely, encephalitis, transverse myelitis, and seizures. Historically neurologic complications of smallpox include encephalitis, transverse myelitis, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis among others. Of concern is the possibility of viral persistence and systemic complications in immunocompromised individuals. Monkeypox should be considered when these neurologic symptoms are seen in high-risk populations.