Development of a rapid screener to elicit patient preferences for antiseizure medication discontinuation.

Objective: While guidelines encourage individualized discussions of the risks and benefits of antiseizure medication (ASM) withdrawal after a period of seizure-freedom, no formal methods exist for assessing patient preferences. We report the initial development of a rapid patient preferences screener.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study of adults who were ≥1 year seizure-free and seen for epilepsy across three institutions.

Improving Quality of Care for Status Epilepticus: Putting Protocols into Practice.

Purpose Of Review: Timely treatment of status epilepticus (SE) improves outcomes, however gaps between recommended and implemented care are common. This review analyzes obstacles and explores interventions to optimize effective, evidence-based treatment of SE.

Recent Findings: Seizure action plans, rescue medications, and noninvasive wearables with seizure detection capabilities can facilitate early intervention for prolonged seizures in the home and school.

Inpatient long-term video-electroencephalographic monitoring event capture audiovisual diagnostic quality.

Objectives: Long-term video-electroencephalographic monitoring (LTVEM) represents the gold-standard method to evaluate whether events represent electrographic seizures, but limited work has evaluated the quality of inpatient event capture. We evaluated the frequency of audiovisual factors impairing the ideal electroclinical correlation of seizure-like episodes during LTVEM.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed consecutive inpatient LTVEM studies (11/2019-12/2019) from three academic epilepsy centers.

Telephone-based depression self-management in Hispanic adults with epilepsy: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Depression is associated with adverse outcomes in epilepsy but is undertreated in this population. Project UPLIFT, a telephone-based depression self-management program, was developed for adults with epilepsy and has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms in English-speaking patients. There remains an unmet need for accessible mental health programs for Hispanic adults with epilepsy.

Pseudotumor Cerebri Syndrome Complicated by Diffuse Ophthalmoparesis and Polyradiculopathy.

Pseudotumor cerebri syndrome (PTCS), also known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), is defined by elevated intracranial pressure in the absence of a structural or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) abnormality. Typical features include headache, visual symptoms, and pulsatile tinnitus. Cranial nerve deficits are seen in a minority of cases, most often sixth nerve palsies.

Developing and Implementing a Standardized Ictal Examination in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.

Background: The ictal examination is crucial for neuroanatomic localization of seizure onset, which informs medical and neurosurgical treatment of epilepsy. Substantial variation exists in ictal examination performance in epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs). We developed and implemented a standardized examination to facilitate rapid, reliable execution of all testing domains and adherence to patient safety maneuvers.