Epilepsy Action Provides New Service For Helpline Users, UK

Advice and information about epilepsy is now available at the touch of a button thanks to a new text message service launched. Epilepsy Action, the UK's largest member-led epilepsy organisation, has introduced the new service to ensure advice and information about epilepsy is as accessible as possible.

Abundance Of Hubs Influences Seizures And Offers Insight Into How Epilepsy Develops

An increased number of neuron "hubs" in the epileptic brain may be the root cause for the seizures that characterize the disorder, according to a UC Irvine study.Researchers Robert Morgan and Ivan Soltesz with the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology identified that these hubs - a small number of highly connected neurons - are formed in the hippocampus during the transition from a healthy brain to an epileptic one.

Structure Of Brain Receptor Implicated In Epilepsy And PMT Determined By Scientists

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have published new research in the journal Molecular Pharmacology identifying the structure of a receptor in the brain implicated in conditions such as epilepsy and pre-menstrual tension.

Room For Improvement In Balancing Epileptic Seizure Control And Side Effects

On the heels of the nation's largest event dedicated to the epilepsy community, the National Walk for Epilepsy, advocates have announced their recommendations in response to a new national survey uncovering key challenges facing the epilepsy community.

Study May Lead To Improved Treatments For Epilepsy

Using a rodent model of epilepsy, researchers found one of the body's own neurotransmitters released during seizures, glutamate, turns on a signaling pathway in the brain that increases production of a protein that could reduce medication entry into the brain.

Elderly Epilepsy Patients Have Higher Risk Of Cognitive Decline

An article published in the May 2008 issue of Epilepsia calls attention to the lack of knowledge regarding cognitive aging in chronic epilepsy patients. For persons with chronic epilepsy, little is known about the impact of aging on the course of cognitive and brain health, the prevalence of clinical disorders of aging (mild cognitive impairment, dementia), or the disease burdens and risk factors associated with abnormal cognitive and brain aging.

Sepracor Announces Phase III Data For Eslicarbazepine Acetate Presented At Ninth Eilat Conference On New Anti-Epileptic Drugs

Sepracor Inc. (Nasdaq: SEPR) announced the presentation of Phase III combined clinical results for eslicarbazepine acetate (SEP-0002093 / BIA 2-093) in the treatment of epilepsy at the Ninth Eilat Conference on New Anti-Epileptic Drugs in Spain. Results of the studies demonstrated a significant reduction in the frequency of partial seizures in patients who were administered eslicarbazepine acetate in combination with other existing anti-epileptic drugs.

Genetic Cause For A Type Of Childhood Epilepsy Identified By UCLA VA Scientists

Imagine "blanking out" of consciousness up to 200 times daily while you're learning in a classroom, playing baseball, taking ballet lessons or riding a bike. This is a common occurrence in the life of a child with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE). The condition is associated with frequent "absent" seizures where the patient's consciousness is impaired leaving the child staring blankly ahead not aware or responsive for up to 10 seconds at a time.

Brain Pathway That Shuts Down Seizures Identified

Researchers at the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System have uncovered a brain pathway that shuts down seizures.The multidisciplinary team of scientists pieced together information from clinical observations made in the first half of the 20th century with knowledge from modern genetics and molecular biology to show that an acid-activated ion channel in the brain reacts to a drop in pH (increased acid) in a way that shuts down seizure activity.

Discovery Of Possible Link Between Different Forms Of Epilepsy

Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientists have identified what may be the first known common denominator underlying inherited and sporadic epilepsy - a disruption in an ion channel called the BK channel. Although BK channels have been linked to a rare, familial form of epilepsy, their involvement in other types of seizure disorders has never been demonstrated.