Epilepsy is the third most common major neurologic disease, and infancy and childhood are windows of higher incidence. Almost half of all epilepsy patients suffer some sort of cognitive and psychiatric disorders, and the incidence of cognitive problems including autism is high in children with epilepsy. Likewise, there is a higher incidence of epilepsy in autism and other intellectual developmental disorders. Here we evaluate whether epilepsy can affect the normal processes of early brain development, and whether there are molecular targets for intervention and treatment to reverse these changes. This grant application addresses several components of the Epilepsy Research Benchmarks (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/research/epilepsyweb/2007_benchmarks.htm ) Benchmarks Area III: Prevent, limit, and reverse the co-morbidities associated with epilepsy and its treatment. B. Identify predictors and underlying mechanisms that contribute to co-morbidities. C. Determine the optimal treatments for the neuropsychiatric and cognitive comorbidities in people with epilepsy. D. Prevent or limit other adverse consequences occurring in people with epilepsy . Public Health
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| Simonato, Michele; Brooks-Kayal, Amy R; Engel Jr, Jerome et al. (2014) The challenge and promise of anti-epileptic therapy development in animal models. Lancet Neurol 13:949-60 |
| Fernández, Iván Sánchez; Chapman, Kevin E; Peters, Jurriaan M et al. (2013) The tower of Babel: survey on concepts and terminology in electrical status epilepticus in sleep and continuous spikes and waves during sleep in North America. Epilepsia 54:741-50 |
