Epilepsy

Seizures are frightening, sometimes surreal, experiences for people who have them -- and for observers. Perhaps it's because seizures come on unexpectedly or that they produce such unusual symptoms. It's certainly not because they're uncommon. Roughly 1 in 100 people experience recurrent seizures, a condition commonly known as epilepsy, according to a study released in August by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A widely used anti-epilepsy drug called topiramate raises the risk of birth defects as much as 14-fold when taken by pregnant women, especially in combination with another drug called valproate, British researchers reported today. Experts were quick to caution, however, that the study involved only 203 women, and thus significant statistical uncertainty remained about the research. "You can't make any definitive statements from the data," said Dr. Kimford J.

The Food and Drug Administration wants to add its most serious warning label to epilepsy drugs, based on evidence that they increase the risk of suicide in patients. FDA scientists have proposed adding a "black box" warning about suicide risks to all drugs used to treat seizures. An FDA analysis of nearly 200 studies showed that patients taking anti-seizure drugs were more likely to have suicidal thoughts and behaviors than those taking placebos. Although the reported problems were extremely rare, the FDA found that drug-treated patients faced about twice the risk.

The first clinical trial of a ketogenic diet -- high in fats and low in carbohydrates and protein -- for epilepsy has shown that it sharply curtails seizures and is an effective tool for managing children who are resistant to anti-epilepsy drugs. The diet mimics the effects of starvation and induces the body to produce chemicals called ketone bodies rather than glucose as an energy source for the brain. Researchers are not sure why ketone bodies appear to reduce seizures.

The scene inside the small Hawthorne apartment had all the hallmarks of an ordinary domestic killing. Arthur Bonner, 35, stood in the bedroom with fresh scratches on his chest and a badly split lip. On the bed behind him lay the lifeless body of Angel Dews, his girlfriend of eight years. Dews' 12-year-old daughter said she had heard a commotion in the room while the door was locked.

The man whose 72-year-old mother was left behind in a crumpled car towed to a police impound lot said Wednesday that he remembers little about the car crash that killed her and put him in a hospital intensive care unit. From his hospital bed, Steven Williams, 48, of Paso Robles, Calif., said he has epilepsy and believes that he had a seizure in the moments before he slammed the car into a Tarzana strip mall Saturday morning.

One in four women who took the widely used epilepsy drug valproate while pregnant gave birth to children who were mentally retarded, double the rate among women who took other epilepsy medicines, researchers said Thursday. The report, presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston, was the latest to document the potential dangers of valproate to the unborn.

When she was having her seizures -- sometimes more than 30 times a day -- Anastasia Lagala's face locked into a smiling grimace as her limbs flailed, and an eerie laugh came from her throat. "The Joker face," her physician, Dr. Steven Schneider of Schneider Children's Hospital, called it. But since recent surgery, the 3-year-old girl with a rare form of epilepsy has been seizure-free.

One in five women who took the widely used epilepsy drug valproate in a clinical trial had pregnancies resulting in birth defects or fetal death, researchers said Monday. The drug, sold as Depakote by Abbott Laboratories Inc., was substantially riskier to unborn children than three competing medicines examined in the study. The researchers found cases of malformed hearts and genitals, cleft palate and artery deformities among children born to women taking the drug.

Pfizer Inc. and other drug companies have the right to sell unbranded versions of their own drugs even if they undercut sales of generic competitors, a U.S. appeals court has ruled. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's biggest generic-drug maker, sued in August to stop Pfizer from selling a lower-cost version of the epilepsy drug Neurontin. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a ruling Friday, said the law didn't prohibit such "authorized generics."