Epilepsy therapeutic approach

Fig. 7.1 Epileptic process in symptomatic temporal-lobe epilepsy. Adapted from Pitkanen, A., and Sutula, T.P. 2002. Is epilepsy a progressive disorder Prospects for new therapeutic approaches in temporal-lobe epilepsy. The Lancet Neurology 1 173, with permission from Elsevier See also Color Insert)...

Therapeutic approaches approved by the FDA include spinal cord stimulation for pain, DBS for Parkinson s disease and essential tremor, and vagus nerve stimulation in epilepsy and depression. Techniques stiU at the investigational stj e include DBS for depression, epilepsy, headache, Tourette s syndrome, and pain cortical stimulation in Parkinson s disease, tremor, pain, depression, and stroke rehabilitation and peripheral nerve stimulation for headache and tinnitus. 

Systemic or intracerebral administration of pilocarpine hydrochloride in high doses induces seizures in rodents. These seizures are characterized by a sequential development of behavioral patterns and electrographic activity [69]. The pilocarpine seizure induces status epilepticus like in humans mimicking the pathogenesis and progression of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy [70]. It can be useful to exploit these model properties to design new therapeutic approaches for treating refractory epilepsies. 

Knutsen LJS, Murray TF. Adenosine and ATP in epilepsy. In Jacobson KA, Jarvis MF, eds. Purinergic Approaches in Experimental Therapeutics. New York Wiley-Liss, 1997 423 447. 

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