Kritz, Fran Neurology Now: October/November 2017 – Volume 13 – Issue 5 – p 10–11 Many neurologic diseases, such as epilepsy, spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, or Down syndrome, begin in childhood when patients are seen by pediatric neurologists. What happens when these patients age into adulthood? Do they stay with their pediatric specialist or switch to a neurologist who treats adults or both children and adults? The accepted wisdom is to transition to doctors […]
Category: Epilepsy
Don’t Ask Taxpayers to Support Children with Disabilities
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & DENTISTRY BY H. BARRY WALDMAN DDS, MPH, PHD, STEVEN P. PERLMAN DDS, MSCD, DHL (HON) AND MATTHEW COOKE, DDS, MD, MPH “Don’t ask taxpayers to support disabled children: When I was 10 years old, I chose to be child-free because I knew that I would not make a good parent, and at 38 I’m still content with my choice… Parenthood is a choice, not a divine right, and all […]
GW Pharmaceuticals Announces Positive Results from Phase 3 Cannabidiol Trial
GW Pharmaceuticals has announced positive results from the first of two Phase 3 studies of Epidiolex® (cannabidiol or CBD) in the treatment of Dravet syndrome. Median seizure reduction was 39% with Epidiolex versus only 13% with placebo, a scientifically significant finding. In addition, the side-effect profile was acceptable for an anti-epileptic drug and secondary endpoints were supportive of a robust treatment effect. “This is a very important day for the epilepsy community and families struggling […]
Marijuana-Based Drug Found to Reduce Epileptic Seizures
SOURCE THE NEW YORK TIMES By ANDREW POLLACK An experimental drug derived from marijuana has succeeded in reducing epileptic seizures in its first major clinical trial, the product’s developer announced on Monday, a finding that could lend credence to the medical marijuana movement. The developer, GW Pharmaceuticals, said the drug, Epidiolex, achieved the main goal of the trial, reducing convulsive seizures when compared with a placebo in patients with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of […]
Mind-controlled prosthetic arm moves individual ‘fingers’
Physicians and biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins report what they believe is the first successful effort to wiggle fingers individually and independently of each other using a mind-controlled artificial “arm” to control the movement. The proof-of-concept feat, described online in the Journal of Neural Engineering, represents a potential advance in technologies to restore refined hand function to those who have lost arms to injury or disease, the researchers say. The young man on whom the […]