What is drug resistant epilepsy called?
Drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) is a term used to describe when adequate trials of two anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have failed to control a person’s seizures. Some people also refer to this as “refractory”, “intractable” or “uncontrolled” epilepsy.
How do you choose antiepileptics?
The choice of antiepileptic drugs is based on the clinical features of the seizure types, electroencephalogram findings, epileptic syndrome, and drug stability.
What is drug resistant focal epilepsy?
Drug-resistant epilepsy occurs when a person has failed to become (and stay) seizure free with adequate trials of two antiseizure medications (called ASMs).
What percent of epilepsy is drug resistant?
This condition is also referred to as intractable, medically refractory, or pharmacoresistant epilepsy. As many as 20 to 40 percent of patients with epilepsy (roughly 400,000 people living in the United States) are likely to have refractory epilepsy.
What part of brain controls seizures?
The temporal lobes are the areas of the brain that most commonly give rise to seizures. The mesial portion (middle) of both temporal lobes is very important in epilepsy — it is frequently the source of seizures and can be prone to damage or scarring.
Can epilepsy be caused from brain trauma?
Any type of traumatic brain injury or head trauma can be the cause of epilepsy or a seizure disorder. Common causes include car accidents, construction site accidents, falls as a result of dangerous and unsafe premises, and unsafe worksites. Head trauma is one of the leading causes of epilepsy and seizure disorders.
What epilepsy does to the brain?
In epilepsy the brain’s electrical rhythms have a tendency to become imbalanced, resulting in recurrent seizures. In patients with seizures, the normal electrical pattern is disrupted by sudden and synchronized bursts of electrical energy that may briefly affect their consciousness, movements or sensations.
Does epilepsy affect the whole brain?
Seizures can occur anywhere in the brain, but in children they frequently occur in the temporal and frontal lobes, affecting the functions that these regions control. A region of particular importance in adults with epilepsy, but less so in children, is the mesial, or middle, part of the temporal lobe.
What is drug resistant epilepsy?
What is drug resistant epilepsy? Drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) is a term used to describe when adequate trials of two anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have failed to control a person’s seizures. Some people also refer to this as “refractory”, “intractable” or “uncontrolled” epilepsy.
Which genes are involved in multidrug resistance in epilepsy?
Kwan P, Poon WS, Ng HK, et al. Multidrug resistance in epilepsy and polymorphisms in the voltage-gated sodium channel genes SCN1A, SCN2A, and SCN3A: correlation among phenotype, genotype, and mRNA expression. Pharmacogenet Genomics 2008 ;18: 989 – 998
How many patients with epilepsy have seizures refractory to pharmacotherapy?
Despite the availability of over 20 antiseizure drugs (ASDs) for symptomatic treatment of epileptic seizures, about one-third of patients with epilepsy have seizures refractory to pharmacotherapy. Patients with … Epilepsy is a chronic neurologic disorder that affects over 70 million people worldwide.
What is the prognosis of drug-resistant epilepsy?
Patients with such drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) have increased risks of premature death, injuries, psychosocial dysfunction, and a reduced quality of life, so development of more effective therapies is an urgent clinical need.