Articles related to EPILEPSY/SEIZURES

According to Paul Harrison, FRCPsych, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues, health records of nearly 1.3 million people, mostly in the US, revealed that risks of cognitive deficit (brain fog), dementia, psychotic disorders, and epilepsy or seizures were elevated at 2 years for adults who had COVID. Adult COVID patients had an increased risk of anxiety and depression in the first six months, but this risk decreased over time, the researchers reported in Lancet Psychiatry.

A fascinating case with “Ms. D,” a licensed registered nurse who, as as part of her job, was assigned to work with “Dr. K,” a pediatric neurologist. One of the patients they cared for was a middle-school aged child who suffered from seizures. Learn more details of the case and what happened after Ms. D found out the divorced parents had two different neurologists prescribing two different medications.

FDA approved new indications for these drugs in July, include a Janus kinase inhibitor and a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor for use in dermatology, a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor for partial-onset seizures, and an expanded indication for the TKI crizotinib.

Using covariate analysis of records from more than 1.2 million children over 17 years, these researchers conclude that the elevated risk for neonatal seizures and childhood epilepsy in children who were exposed to SSRIs or SNRIs during pregnancy can be attributed to the indicated SSRI and SNRI use for pregnant women, history of parental epilepsy, and other covariates, rather than the use of the medication itself.

In 2019, the FDA warned that gabapentin might cause serious breathing difficulties when used with drugs that depress the central nervous system. The warning may have not been heeded, as overdose deaths in which gabapentin was detected doubled from 449 in the first quarter of 2019 to 959 in the second quarter of 2020.

More than half of adult Americans (60%) have at least one chronic condition that eventually lead to disability, mortality, and reduced quality of life. And chronic conditions account for 90% of America’s $3.8 trillion in annual healthcare costs. The CDC says these are the eight most expensive.