Epilepsy

A recent meta-analysis of clinical trials for newer antiseizure medications found that the risk of suicidality was not increased compared with placebo.

Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness may favor lamotrigine over newer antiseizure treatments levetiracetam and zonisamide for focal epilepsy.

In a study with important implications for first-line treatment of generalized epilepsy, particularly for women of childbearing age, investigators found that levetiracetam may not be as clinically effective or cost-effective as valproate for newly diagnosed generalized epilepsy.

The safety profile for diazepam nasal spray for acute treatment of seizure clusters was similar with or without concomitant benzodiazepine therapy, according to the interim results of a phase 3 open-label safety study.

Brivaracetam as adjunctive therapy for focal seizures is safe, well-tolerated, and efficacious, according to the results of a long-term follow-up study of participants in earlier clinical trials.

Initiating antiepileptic therapy in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex before their first seizure may delay the onset of seizures, according to a new study.

For seizures that occur during sleep, deeper sleep in the 5 minutes preceding a seizure was correlated with a reduced heart rate after the seizure, according to a recent study.

Patients with early- versus late-onset epilepsy exhibited distinct differences in the origin of memory deficits, supporting the practice of subtyping patients by clinical characteristics to identify individualized predictors of cognitive dysfunction, according to the results of a new study.

A survey of the newest antiepileptic drugs shows clinical progress and improved outcomes, but also room for improvement.