This hub covers drug-resistant epilepsy: When seizures aren’t controlled after trying two appropriate medicines. Research-backed next steps on diet therapies, devices, surgery evaluation, and safety.
If seizures aren’t controlled after two meds, it’s worth at least an evaluation at an epilepsy center.
Not necessarily. Some familiar consider it earlier depending on seizure type and goals.
Yes. Treatment response can change over time, and combinations/approaches matter.
Seizure frequency, triggers, sleep, missed meds, side effects, and rescue med use.
Researchers examined KCNA2 variants in people with epilepsy, with special attention to spike-and-wave activation in sleep (SWAS), an EEG pattern seen during sleep.
This was a small early study of prescription cannabidiol (CBD, brand name Epidiolex) in 12 children and teens with refractory epilepsy.
This study looked at whether personalized computer models of the brain could help explain why some children with drug-resistant epilepsy improve with vagus nerve stimulation, while others do not.
This study looked at children with epilepsy who had brain surgery to try to stop their seizures.
This study looked at a brain device called the RNS System in adults with drug-resistant focal epilepsy, meaning seizures kept happening despite medicine.
This paper was a review, not a new clinical trial.
This report describes one 8-year-old boy with brain injury from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) who had both dystonia, which causes abnormal muscle tightness and movements, and epilepsy that did not respond to medicine.
This report looked at one person with hard-to-control temporal lobe epilepsy who had part of the hippocampus removed in surgery.
This paper reviewed research on stiripentol, a seizure medicine, in children with developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, or DEEs.