Product information and disease description Place of product in therapy Disease description

Clinical presentation - signs and symptoms

8 evidence topics · 7 sources

Seizure semiology: focal aware and focal impaired awareness seizures

“Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the commonest form of focal epilepsy and represents almost 2/3 of cases of intractable epilepsy managed surgically.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Seizure auras occur in many TLE patients and often exhibit features that are relatively specific for TLE but few are of lateralizing value.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Automatisms represent coordinated involuntary motor activity that is stereotyped and virtually always accompanied by altered consciousness and subsequent amnesia.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Automatisms occur in almost two thirds of CPSs of mesial temporal lobe onset” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Seizure semiology: focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures

“focal seizures in which the ictal activity propagates to both hemispheres, while the semiology evolves to impairment and eventually complete loss of consciousness and bilateral tonic muscle activation” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Seizure semiology: ictal and postictal amnesia

“Individuals with CPSs may be unaware that they had a seizure minutes earlier. They may also be unable to recall events which occurred before seizure onset. The degree of retrograde and anterograde amnesia is variable.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Postictal amnesia likely results from bilateral impairment of hippocampal function.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Cognitive symptoms: memory, executive function, and language impairment

“The proportion with generalized cognitive impairment, another unexpected phenotype for a focal epilepsy, ranged from 15–44% (mean 29%), and the remaining individuals exhibited more focal cognitive patterns, involving reduced executive function and/or speed, and memory and/or language impairments” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Cognitive symptoms: effect of seizures and medication on learning and memory

“Aside from severe learning disabilities, epilepsy can impact learning through memory impairment. Seizures can reduce alertness and interfere with short-term information storage. Frequent uncontrolled or night-time seizures can impair new information learning, disrupt memory consolidation, and affect language function” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Cognitive impairments, such as learning difficulties, behavior change, and memory impairment, can be induced or exacerbated by ASMs, particularly those with impaired cognition, depending on dose and individual susceptibility” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Psychiatric symptoms: mood and anxiety disorders in newly diagnosed focal epilepsy

“A total of 151 (43.5%) patients had a psychiatric diagnosis; 134 (38.6%) met the criteria for a mood and/or anxiety disorder, and 75 (21.6%) reported suicidal ideation with or without attempts.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Mood (23.6%) and anxiety (27.4%) disorders had comparable prevalence rates, whereas both disorders occurred together in 43 patients (12.4%).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“In patients with newly diagnosed focal epilepsy, the prevalence of mood, anxiety disorders, and suicidality is higher than in the general population and comparable to those of patients with established epilepsy.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Psychiatric symptoms: pooled prevalence of depression in epilepsy

“Nine studies reported on 29,891 PWE who had an overall prevalence of active (current or past-year) depression of 23.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 20.6%–28.31%).” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“Five of the 14 studies reported on 1,217,024 participants with an overall OR of active depression of 2.77 (95% CI 2.09–3.67) in PWE.” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)

Psychiatric symptoms: other psychiatric comorbidity

“The most prevalent psychiatric comorbidities are depression (23.1%) and anxiety (20.2%)” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)
“People with epilepsy may also present with alcohol abuse (8.7%), drug abuse (7.8%), and interictal psychosis (5.2%)” (opens the source at this quote in a new tab)