News on Epilepsy

Surgery halts seizures in many epileptics: study

2011-10-13T16:30:22Z

LONDON (Reuters) - Almost half of epilepsy patients who have surgery find that it stops their seizures completely for at least 10 years, scientists said on Friday, suggesting an effective alternative to costly and difficult drug treatment.

In the first long-term study of post-surgery epilepsy patients, British researchers found that 82 percent of them were seizure-free after one year, 52 per...

Malnutrition is taking its toll on Somali children

2011-09-06T07:30:16Z

Nearly too weak to cry, Masteha Jama Mohamed's three-month-old daughter is barely the length of her forearm, as the severely malnourished baby struggles for survival in famine-hit Somalia.

Mohamed is herself just a teenager: the 16-year-old mother says her baby has been sick ever since she was two weeks old, and now at 2.5 kilogrammes, is still only the weight of a newborn.

But even after reaching Reuters) - Danish drugmaker Lundbeck will continue to sell a drug used in U.S. executions since pulling it off the market would be bad for some patients with severe epilepsy, its CEO said on Wednesday.

The company has found itself at the center of a storm because CHICAGO (Reuters) - Vice President Joseph Biden on Tuesday tapped into his own medical history to lead a big fundraiser for researching a cure for epilepsy, which he called "a terrible lightning storm in the brain."

Biden and former CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nearly three of five children with newly diagnosed epilepsy do not take their antiepileptic medications as prescribed over the first six months of therapy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Children from the poorest families in the study were least likely to take their medications as directed, the researchers said.

Only ...

Epilepsy killed celebrity polar bear Knut: report

2011-03-26T11:30:07Z

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Knut, the celebrity orphan polar bear who drew thousands of visitors to Berlin zoo, died after an epileptic fit, according to neurologists quoted by Focus magazine.

A CAT scan had revealed ab...

Epilepsy drugs linked to more broken bones

2011-01-12T15:00:15Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults on certain epilepsy drugs have an increased risk of breaking their wrist, hip or spine, according to a new Canadian study.

The drugs have been suspected of weakening bones for years, researchers say, but whether individual medications are different hadn't been clear.

The Canadian team found patients on all but one of 15 common epilepsy drugs stu...

Tragedy turns parents into successful activists

2010-12-24T12:00:14Z

Parents prompt epilepsy study, gain 10,000 followers less than a year after son's tragic death

Epilepsy takes as many as 50,000 lives each year — grim statistics Mike and Mariann Stanton hadn't heard of until their 4-year-old son, Danny, became one of them.

Somehow, that horrible tragedy a year ago transformed a blissfully ordinary Chicago family into extraordinary activists. With ...

Pharmaceutical company agrees to pay $203M fine

2010-12-15T16:31:44Z

Pharmaceutical company Elan agrees to pay more than $203 million to settle case with govt

Irish pharmaceutical manufacturer Elan Corporation PLC and its U.S. subsidiary have agreed to pay more than $203 million for alleged illegal promotion of the epilepsy drug Zonegran, the Justice Dep...

FDA declines to OK Glaxo epilepsy drug for now

2010-12-01T15:01:06Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve an experimental epilepsy drug from GlaxoSmithKline and Chicago, Mariann Stanton, and her brother-in-law Tom Stanton sort through Danny Did Foundation sweat shirts in the living room of her home. Mariann's son four year-old Danny St...