News tagged with 'Epilepsy'

Children of mothers who took the anti-seizure medication valproate, had lower IQ scores as three-year-olds, researchers find. Valproate should not be the first line of epilepsy defense for any women of childbearing age they conclude. 

Seizures can turn into a medical emergency if they are not addressed immediately.  Tuesday, the coroner in the Bahamas officially listed Jett Travolta's death as a "seizure." 

The Travolta family had largely kept quiet about their teenage son's fight with seizure disorder. He had also suffered from Kawasaki disease, which affects 19 out of every 100,000 children.

U.S. health regulators are requiring manufacturer's of twenty-one anti-seizure drugs to add a warning about increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (suicidality) to the products’ prescribing information and labeling.

Researchers suggest that pregnant women who take the epilepsy drug valproate during pregnancy increase their child’s risk of developing autism. However, experts say the benefits of the drug and the high risk of seizures during pregnancy may outweigh the risk of autism.

Banzel (rufinamide) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an added treatment for a severe form of epilepsy known as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. This approval offers another treatment option for those patients who suffer from these debilitating, severe seizures.

A lawsuit was filed against Pfizer alleging the company suppressed medical studies that did not support the company's campaign to boost sales of its epilepsy drug, Neurontin.

While anti-seizure medications do carry an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and ideation in some patients, a U.S. advisory panel says studies do not show a high-enough risk to justify the agency's toughest warning.

Developed by Johnson & Johnson, Topamax, also known as topiramate, is a drug used to treat epilepsy and seizures. During clinical trials, though, researchers discovered the drug's ability to control weight gain. In fact, users lost up to twelve percent of their body weight after taking Topamax for two years. Jo