BioMed Central

Page 1 of 1(page number not for citation purposes)

Annals of General Psychiatry

Open AccessOral presentationNeuroprotection in epilepsy: the role of antiepileptic drugsVasileios Kimiskidis

Address: 3rd Department of Psychiatry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

During the last 15 years, accumulating experimental andclinical evidence suggested that the epileptic brain mayundergo significant modifications as a result of recurrentseizures or due to the underlying seizure etiology. Thisconcept of epilepsy as an evolving neurodegenerativeprocess is best exemplified by temporal lobe epilepsy.According to current thinking, in patients with temporallobe epilepsy a triggering factor, such as complicatedfebrile seizures or head trauma, sets in motion the processof epileptogenesis, that is a cascade of events leading to agradual increase of brain excitability and eventually theoccurrence of spontaneous seizures. In a subset ofpatients, this process further evolves due to a complexinteraction of neurodegenerative and neuroplasticchanges brought about by recurrent seizures. At a clinicallevel, this evolving process becomes evident by the onsetof pharmacoresistant epileptic seizures sometimes accom-panied by cognitive decline. The current pharmacologicaltreatment of epilepsy is directed towards suppressing epi-leptic seizures and therefore it is essentially a symptomaticapproach. The recent unraveling of the cellular mecha-nisms underlying epileptogenesis, however, has led to thediscovery of pharmacological agents with neuroprotectiveand antiepileptogenic properties, which include a numberof clinically available antiepileptic drugs. These agentshold promise as disease modification strategies whichmay ultimately improve the long-term outcome of epilep-tic patients by mitigating cognitive compromise and pre-venting the transition to pharmacoresistance. Thispresentation reviews the available evidence regarding theneuroprotective properties of antiepileptic drugs and dis-cusses some methodological difficulties in designing clin-ical trials with a view to investigating neuroprotectivestrategies in epilepsy.

from International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and BehaviourThessaloniki, Greece. 28 November – 2 December 2007

Published: 17 April 2008

Annals of General Psychiatry 2008, 7(Suppl 1):S74 doi:10.1186/1744-859X-7-S1-S74

<supplement> <title> <p>International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour</p> </title> <note>Meeting abstracts - A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1744-859X-7-S1-full.pdf">here</a>.</note> </supplement>

This abstract is available from: http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/7/S1/S74

© 2008 Kimiskidis; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.