Lancet neurology
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Most women with active epilepsy need treatment with antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy. Antiepileptic drugs are also frequently used for other indications, such as migraine, pain syndromes, and psychiatric disorders, which are prevalent among women of childbearing age. ⋯ Adverse drug effects on the fetus can present as fetal loss, intrauterine growth retardation, congenital malformations, impaired postnatal development, and behavioural problems. For optimum use of antiepileptic drugs in women of childbearing age and rational management of epilepsy during pregnancy, a thorough understanding of the teratogenic effects of antiepileptic drugs and knowledge of the differences in risks between various treatment options are needed.
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Clinical trials as part of antiepileptic drug development are increasingly expensive and complex, with many pitfalls that can derail even promising drugs and devices. Although a third of patients remain resistant to treatment, the availability of more than 20 approved antiepileptic drugs can reduce the incentive to enrol in trials of unproven agents, for which safety is not assured. ⋯ Furthermore, the availability of so many approved treatments raises questions about the ethics and safety of placebo-controlled trials in patients with epilepsy. Novel trial designs, such as time-to-event adjunctive therapy and historical-control monotherapy, might be more acceptable to patients and their doctors because they restrict exposure to placebo or ineffective treatments.
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Serogroup B meningococcal disease is the commonest cause of meningitis and septicaemia in high-income countries. Assessment of new serogroup B meningococcal vaccines is hampered by a scarcity of data on the burden of disease in survivors. We aimed to estimate the disease burden in children having survived serogroup B meningococcal disease. ⋯ Meningitis Trust and Big Lottery Fund, UK.
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Consciousness is essential to normal human life. In epileptic seizures consciousness is often transiently lost, which makes it impossible for the individual to experience or respond. These effects have huge consequences for safety, productivity, emotional health, and quality of life. ⋯ Advances in neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and prospective behavioural testing have shed light on how epileptic seizures disrupt the consciousness system. Diverse seizure types, including absence, generalised tonic-clonic, and complex partial seizures, converge on the same set of anatomical structures through different mechanisms to disrupt consciousness. Understanding of these mechanisms could lead to improved treatment strategies to prevent impairment of consciousness and improve the quality of life of people with epilepsy.
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Alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) is a rare neurological disorder characterised by early-onset episodes of hemiplegia, dystonia, various paroxysmal symptoms, and developmental impairment. Almost all cases of AHC are sporadic but AHC concordance in monozygotic twins and dominant transmission in a family with a milder phenotype have been reported. Thus, we aimed to identify de-novo mutations associated with this disease. ⋯ Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation for Humans with Rare Diseases.