You’ve just received an epilepsy diagnosis. Now what?
If you have epilepsy, there are some lifestyle changes you can make to help keep your seizures under control. An epilepsy expert at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center explains.
The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Ohio State is part of one of the nation’s largest academic health centers. This means we emphasize education, research and access to the latest medication and therapies. You’ll find research studies and clinical trials at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center that you may not find in most hospitals — or in some cases, anywhere else.
Whether we’re conducting a study to compare different treatment options and how they work in different patients, working to understand the impact of epilepsy or offering a clinical trial of an experimental therapy, our goal is always to offer our patients access to the best care, while also improving treatments for the future.
Because our researchers work directly with our patient care teams, your doctor will be aware of the latest studies and clinical trials that may help you reach a new level of control over your epilepsy.
Current epilepsy research occurring at Ohio State
Our commitment to research has given our patients with epilepsy potential access to some promising new therapies to help better control seizures. Some of the most recent research includes:
- A clinical trial on long-term safety and effectiveness of Medtronic DBS therapy for epilepsy on seizure reduction in newly-implanted patients
- Developing a transition registry for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy
- A clinical trial for the safety and effectiveness of CVL-865 as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of focal onset seizures
- A clinical trial on focused ultrasound thalamotomy for the prevention of secondary generalization in focal onset of epilepsy
While this is just the latest list, new research is started all the time. To see the most current studies and clinical trials, visit our main research page and search “epilepsy.”
About clinical trials
Many people misunderstand the role of research and clinical trials, thinking patients are treated as just study subjects or “guinea pigs.” In reality, clinical trials are safe and carefully controlled and give patients, who’ve not gotten better using more traditional treatments or medication, earlier access to promising therapies. Every medicine and treatment in health care has been through a clinical trial.
- No medication or treatment moves to the clinical trial stage before research has already been done in the lab to confirm safety and effectiveness.
- Animal models are tested to understand the impact on the entire body, not just on the disease being targeted.
- A treatment is eligible for a clinical trial only after these important, carefully monitored steps that usually take years are completed.
There are also different clinical trial phases, and Ohio State researchers have participated in all, either as leaders of the trial or as co-investigators with other health care researchers across the nation or world.
- Phase 0 studies how the therapy impacts and moves through the body in a small number of people
- Phase I tests the safety of the therapy in a small number of people
- Phase II evaluates the right dosage and how well a therapy works using a control group versus a test group
- Phase III tests the dosage and effectiveness in a large group, usually more than 1,000 people
- Phase IV evaluates the therapy using continuous monitoring through observation
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