Epilepsia
Estrogens are essential for normal brain functions. The effects of estrogens on seizures are contradictory. More studies are necessary to determine under which conditions the estrogens have proconvulsant effects and when the estrogens may have beneficial action in patients with epilepsy.
Food intake triggers convulsions in fasted mice and rats treated with antimuscarinic drugs, scopolamine or atropine. Bearing some similarities in triggering factor and manifestations of the seizures in patients with eating‐evoked epilepsy, seizures in fasted animals may provide insight into the mechanism(s) of this rare and partially controlled form of reflex epilepsy.
Depression represents one of the most common comorbidities of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and has profound negative impact on the quality of life of patients with TLE. However, causes and mechanisms of depression in TLE remain poorly understood, and effective therapies are lacking. We examined whether a commonly used model of TLE in rats could be used as a model of comorbidity between epilepsy and...
The endocannabinoid system plays a central role in retrograde synaptic communication, and controls both glutamatergic and γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic transmission via type 1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor. Both in sclerotic human hippocampi and in the chronic phase of pilocarpine‐induced epilepsy in mice with sclerosis, CB1‐receptor–positive interneuron somata were preserved both in the dentate gyrus...
Seizures rapidly become self‐sustaining and pharmacoresistant to benzodiazepines during status epilepticus (SE). A decrease in the number of postsynaptic γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptors with SE causes a loss of synaptic inhibition, whereas increases in postsynaptic glutamatergic receptors further upset the balance between excitation and inhibition. Although extracellular GABA levels may increase...
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a nonpharmacologic therapeutic option for patients with intractable epilepsy. Better clinical outcomes were recorded in nonfocal and Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome (LGS). We conducted a 2‐year, open label, prospective study to measure the seizure outcome of 26 VNS patients. The seizure numbers were assessed using clinician’s global impression scale (CGI) and patient diaries...