OUHSC Neurologist Says Form of Childhood Epilepsy is Very Hard to Treat

NOV. 10, 2011–Imagine sending your child out the door each day knowing he or she was vulnerable to attack. Epilepsy is that constant danger for many families, but the attack comes from within the body in form of seizures that can cause injury or death.

A new drug is offering hope to families with the most severe type of childhood epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved clobazam after research showed it reduced the number of seizures. Clinical trials were led by Dr. Yu-Tze Ng, a pediatric neurologist with OU Children’s Physicians and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Chair of Child Neurology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.

The recent phase III clinical trial, involving more than 200 pediatric and adult patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome at 51 health centers in the United States, India, Europe and Australia, found the drug reduced seizures in 70 percent of patients taking a dosage of 1 mg per day. Lower doses also saw reduced seizures but to a lesser degree.

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Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is a severe childhood epilepsy associated with several types of seizures, including dangerous drop seizures that can cause falls and injury. Onset usually occurs before 8 years of age.

“This medication seems to be very effective for reduction of seizures in a form of epilepsy that’s very hard to treat,” said Ng, who is also director of epilepsy for OU Children’s Physicians. Ng authored a paper about the drug study that is published in the journal Neurology.

The trial was funded by Lundbeck Inc. Clobazam has been in development in the United States since 2005.

The grandfather of an Oklahoma child with severe epilepsy says he’s hopeful about new drug treatments to reduce seizures.

Ralph Sandoval and his wife are taking care of their 8-year-old grandson Jesse Sandoval, who began having multiple types of seizures around age 2.

They fear most the drop seizures that could lead to injury if Jesse fell.

“I’m so protective,” Ralph Sandoval said. “I make sure he’s always in eyesight, but I’m always scared. I just want him to have as normal a life as possible.”

Virginia Spencer wants the same for her 7-year-old daughter Avagrace, who has multiple seizures each day and must always wear a helmet in case she falls.

Avagrace has endured hormone injections and an operation to implant a vagus nerve stimulator, a small device placed under the skin that may help prevent electrical bursts in the brain.

Through it all, Avagrace puts on a brave face, her mother said.

“She’s my hero,” said Virgina Spencer. “She takes everything with a smile.”

In Attendance

Yu-Tze Ng, M.D.
OU Children’s Physicians
OU College of Medicine

 
Alice Sandoval
Jesse Sandoval, 8

Virginia Spencer
Avagrace Spencer, 7

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