The idea that we can implant a Star Trek-type device that will detect seizures and interrupt them without causing injury is entirely new. And exciting. And scary.
Especially for those people with epilepsy that have seizures that begin at one focal point in the brain, but aren’t appropriate for epilepsy surgery.
Brain stimulation has now been shown to offer significant relief to patients with intractable seizures, for whom drugs and other treatments have not worked.
A recent University of Washington report, published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found a combination of two common drugs, lamotrigine and valproate, is more effective in treating refractory epilepsy than other anti-epileptic regimens.
In a large-scale retrospective study of patients with very difficult-to-control epilepsy, researchers discovered that out of the 32 drug combinations studied, only the lamotrigine/valproate treatment regimen significantly decreased seizure frequency in this group. This specific combination reduced seizure frequency by about half, on average, compared to other regimens.