Epilepsy Talk
New Hope for Drug Resistant Epilepsy | February 22, 2010
Drug-resistant epilepsy with uncontrolled severe seizures — despite state-of-the-art medical treatment — continues to be a major problem for up to 30% of patients with epilepsy. Although drug resistance may fluctuate in the course of treatment, for most patients, drug resistance seems to be continuous.
Unfortunately, traditional antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) don’t seem to prevent or reverse drug resistance in most patients. However some new add-on AED therapies have shown as much as 50% in seizure reduction.
This research concerns the structural brain lesions that have been associated with drug resistance in epilepsy.
British scientists believe they’ve uncovered the root cause of drug resistant epilepsy through tests on patients’ brain tissue which revealed some seizures are caused by electrical connections between nerve cells instead of chemical ones.
This faulty wiring would explain why traditional drugs are useless and why some patients have to resort to surgery to remove the brain tissue responsible for the seizures.
The researchers took brain tissue removed from people with epilepsy into the lab where, miraculously, they were able to coax it to behave as if it was still part of the living brain. They were then able to record electrical signals from individual neurons and networks of neurons in the samples.
What they managed to record was an underlying ‘noise’ — a particular type of brain wave — which occurs in the intact epileptic human brain and which scientists believe to be a precursor to an epileptic seizure.
They found that instead of being controlled by chemical signals which most conventional anti-epileptic drugs target, this variation relies on direct electrical connections.
Dr. Cunningham of the study said the next step would be to understand what it is that triggers the transition between the underlying epileptic state of the brain cells and the fluctuating electrical signals that are responsible for causing a seizure.
Simon Wigglesworth of Epilepsy Action said: “This is exciting news for people whose epilepsy cannot be controlled by medication and an important development in our understanding of the condition. Currently, there is no treatment to cure epilepsy other than surgery, which at the moment is only effective for small numbers.”
“We hope that this research will move us closer to effective treatment”.
Resources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8385790.stm
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16940116
Tags: brain, chemical, connections, drug, electrical, faulty, lesions, resistance, structural, wiring
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Hi Phylis,
I have some drug resistance but not complete drug resistance.
Is this the same thing: I am put on a medicine and then later on it no longer works or I am allergic to it. This has happened ever since I was diagnosed with epilepsy and started medicines. They now have me on a combination that is working. I do not know how long it will last.
Ruth
Comment by Ruth Brown — February 23, 2010 @ 9:15 AMFeb +00:00Feb
That’s kind of tricky Ruth. I think over time you BUILD a resistance to those drugs, as many people do with different drugs,for different reasons.
The new hope is that the combos of certain AEDs, especially those including some of the newbies) can be more effective than just mono-therapy with the tried and true…
Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — February 23, 2010 @ 9:15 PMFeb +00:00Feb
I like this information you have given. I remember learning about the noise of a discharge that is normal and balanced like a ship. It is subtle. The discharge from an overloaded discharge is distinct like a clap of thunder, if you are in a violent storm it seems there is continuous lightning and thunder.
I have heard different theories about medications working. It is individual to each individual. Keppra is sugar water to me. Valporic Acid is the same. Vimpat is almost the same. It is definitely individual!
Comment by Tonialpha — May 4, 2010 @ 9:15 AMMay +00:00May
I have been put on 2 tried and true medications. Keppra and mysoline. I have never been on them. That should work for a while.
Ruth
Comment by Ruth Brown — February 23, 2010 @ 9:15 PMFeb +00:00Feb
Sounds promising! Hope it’s a “keeper!”
Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — February 23, 2010 @ 9:15 PMFeb +00:00Feb
That makes 2 of us.
Ruth
Comment by Ruth Brown — February 23, 2010 @ 9:15 PMFeb +00:00Feb
My medications that I am on are still working. Tonialpha is right, each medication works different on each individual. That is why there are so many meds.
Comment by Ruth Brown — May 4, 2010 @ 9:15 AMMay +00:00May
Thank heavens there are so many different meds. Dilantin almost killed me! It tooks YEARS for me to find the right combo.
Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — May 4, 2010 @ 9:15 PMMay +00:00May
I got Stevens-Johnson Syndrome from Dilatin. It almost killed me too.
I did not even come close to the right meds until about 10 years ago. A couple of meds have had to be changed.
Comment by Ruth Brown — May 4, 2010 @ 9:15 PMMay +00:00May
Go to http://epilepsytalk.com/2009/10/17/stevens-johnson-syndrome-a-danger-for-those-on-dilantin-or-lamictal/ Dilantin is one of the main culprits! Sorry to hear you had to suffer so.
Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — May 4, 2010 @ 9:15 PMMay +00:00May
I am sorry that you suffered from Dilantin. I did not know that I was suppose to die. I was 6 years old. I put it in my poem, “I AM STILL HERE!”
Comment by Ruth Brown — May 5, 2010 @ 9:15 AMMay +00:00May
Need some encouragement? go to http://www.seizuretheday.org
Comment by Pat Wheeler — October 4, 2011 @ 9:15 AMOct +00:00Oct
I’ve been on: Tegretol, Trileptol, Clonopan, Lamictal, Keppra, Depicote, Topomax, and Dilanton. Used to take 23 pills per day; 10 1/2 morning, 12 1/2 night! Had a Right Temporal Lobe Ectomy(brain surgery) in ’07.
Comment by Bethany — October 5, 2011 @ 9:15 AMOct +00:00Oct
I have been on Phenobarbatol, Dilantin, Klonopin, Tegretol ,Keppra, Lamictal, Depakote, Topamax, Mezantoin, Zonegran, and derivitive of these drugs. I have been on test drugs. I was a test patient of Tegretol.
The newer drugs are better on reactions I am finding. I don’t get as sick or sleepy it my be because I have taken seizure medication for a long time and at high dosages. When they take me off the dosages I am in the hospital because of my seizure activity. I sometimes don’t realize I am having them and they can give me something to sedate me.
I have had 2 brain surgeries and recently an MRI noted the cause of my seizures. below the hemispheres in the left ventricle. I am grateful they found it but at this point I am ready to keep trying medication.
Comment by Toni Robison — October 28, 2011 @ 9:15 AMOct +00:00Oct
It appears that the newer FDA category C antiepileptic drugs such as: Neurontin, Topamax, Zonegran, Trileptal, Lyrica and Vimpat have more “power” and less side-effects, according to the EFA.
(I think I’d take a pass on the Lyrica, in fact there was a recent article in the New York Times casting doubt on Lyrica’s success with epilepsy.)
But as you know, everyone is different.
I did hear something interesting at the f.a.c.e.s. conference in NYC (with my idol Orrin Devinsky.)
They’re working on remodeling the molecular structure of some of the existing AEDs to make them more effective and more “user-friendly.”
That should be interesting and it’s in the works as we speak.
Comment by Phylis Feiner Johnson — October 28, 2011 @ 9:15 PMOct +00:00Oct
kool
Comment by Tina Lewis — October 5, 2011 @ 9:15 PMOct +00:00Oct