Seizure Disorders: Latest Research Findings, Emerging Treatments, and Future Directions
Seizures have been challenging humans for centuries. For some, a seizure may be a single frightening event caused by fever or injury, but for others, it is part of a lifelong condition known as epilepsy. But the good news is that the last decade has brought great progress in how we understand, diagnose, and treat seizures.
Learn about seizures from the best neurologist in Dubai. Here, we will highlight what researchers have discovered, where treatments are heading, and what it means for patients and caregivers.
Let’s First Understand What Seizure Is.
A seizure is a sudden surge of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. In simple words, you can understand it like this: you are holding an orchestra and some musical instruments get malfunction. This malfunction of the instruments will cause disruption in the event. In the same way, your brain is designed to work in a certain way, but when malfunctions occur in any part of your brain, brain’s performance is malfunctioned. You may experience convulsions, brief lapses in awareness, muscle jerks, unusual sensations, or even emotional changes.
What Researchers Tell Us About Seizures?
Modern neuroscience has revealed much more about why seizures occur.
Genetics:
Our brain cells communicate through tiny electrical signals. Our brain needs a proper mix of excitatory and inhibitory signals. The first one stimulates activities, and the second one calms things down. Genes provide the blueprints for proteins, such as ion channels and neurotransmitter receptors, that control this balance. Mutations in genes upset the work of the brain and cause abnormal bursts of electrical activity, which are seizures.
Brain structure and injury
Strokes, tumors, infections, or head trauma can cause seizures, and inflammation in the brain can worsen seizures. When somebody is too excited or too conscious about themselves, it can spark seizures.
Chemical imbalances
Very low blood sugar, low sodium, dehydration, or withdrawal from alcohol or medications can trigger seizures.
Infections
Illnesses like meningitis, encephalitis, or even high fevers in children can provoke seizures.
Latest research insights
Here are some highlights from recent scientific studies.
Precision medicine for epilepsy
In advanced seizure treatment in Dubai, your doctor matches the treatment to the underlying mutation. For example, if a child is suffering from seizures due to certain SCN1A mutations, the doctor can offer you sodium channel blockers.
Brain networks are responsible
Earlier, doctors believed that seizures occur due to a single focus, but advancements in medical technologies have invalidated this belief and told that seizures involve networks of brain regions. This revelation has helped the best neurologist in Dubai to plan a safer and effective treatment plan for patients.
Biomarkers for seizure prediction
Researchers are working on brain signals, heart rate changes, and wearable sensors to predict seizures before they happen. Once they succeed in their efforts, you will get alerts before the seizure attacks.
Emerging Treatments in Addition to Traditional Drugs
Your doctor first offers you anti-seizure medications to help you recover from the seizures, but medications do not succeed always because almost one-third of patients have drug-resistant epilepsy. So, the requirement for new medications and treatment options is needed. Research is going on, and much progress has been achieved.
Here are some options that your doctors use when traditional drugs fail.
New medications
Cenobamate, stiripentol, and many other medications have been found useful in the treatment. So, when you contact the best neurologist in Dubai, they may directly recommend these medicines in place of traditional medicines based on their findings.
Neuro-modulation devices
Researchers have invented many devices that help a lot in the treatment of seizures.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation
This is a small device that is fixed under your skin to send electrical impulses to the vagus nerve and reduce the frequency of seizures.
Responsive Neurostimulation
It works like a pacemaker for your brain. When this device detects abnormal activities in your brain, it immediately delivers pulses that stop seizures before they show their effect.
Surgical advances
If you visit the best neurologist in Dubai, your doctor can recommend surgery to remove the tissue that causes seizures. Now, laser ablation techniques and robotics are used to perform the surgery to make it effective and ensure a fast recovery.
Future directions in seizure research
Gene Therapies
Researchers are performing studies on genes to discover the right way to fix faulty genes that cause epilepsy.
Stem cell therapy
Researchers are performing experiments to find a treatment through stem cell therapy. They are researching how it can be used in the treatment of epilepsy to replace damaged neurons.
AI-driven seizure detection and prediction
Researchers are working on using artificial technology in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.
The future of seizure treatment is hopeful. A century ago, there were almost no medications. Today, patients have dozens of drugs, surgical options, devices, and diets. Research is going on, and we can believe that the future is quite bright with the inclusion of artificial intelligence and robotics in the treatment.
