What: More than 100 neurologists from 40 states will be in Washington, DC, March 8-9, 2010, for “Neurology on the Hill,” an event hosted by the American Academy of Neurology to educate lawmakers about the need for health care reform changes that consider neurologists and the patients they treat, including people with Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, migraine, concussion and autism…

Current and former patients treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet to control multiple, daily and severe seizures can be reassured by the news that not only is the diet effective, but it also appears to have no long-lasting side effects, say scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. A study report supporting their conclusion, and believed to be one of the first analyses of the long-term safety and efficacy of the diet, appears online in the February edition of the journal Epilepsia…

New research from Canada shows that almost half of the time, doctors and nurses on popular TV medical dramas respond inappropriately to seizures, suggesting that watching TV is not the best way to learn what to do if you are present when someone has a seizure. Details of the study were released in a press statement today: the findings are to be presented between 10th and 17th April at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto…

Sepracor Inc. announced that it has received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the agency now anticipates completing its review of the STEDESA™ (eslicarbazepine acetate) New Drug Application (NDA) on April 30, 2010, which is a three-month extension to the original Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date of January 30, 2010. In November 2009, at the request of the FDA, Sepracor submitted additional information about STEDESA to the agency…

Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, they could potentially lead to new treatments for abnormal brain activity associated with disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson’s disease. Such disorders could best be treated by silencing, rather than stimulating abnormal brain activity..

Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ: MYL) announced that its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Substantial progress has been made over the last 15 years in the healthcare community’s ability to diagnose and treat epilepsy and its complications. Yet this progress in epilepsy management has not reached most of the 50 million people around the world, including many of the nearly three million people in the United States who have the disorder. According to Steven C.

AES Annual Meeting, Booth #901– Cyberonics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CYBX) announced that Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy, the only FDA-approved implantable medical device for the treatment of refractory epilepsy, will be featured in 14 presentations at the American Epilepsy Society’s (AES) Annual Meeting, taking place December 4-8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Robert Elliott, M.D…

Pioneering research using human brain tissue removed from people suffering from epilepsy has opened the door to new treatments for the disease. Scientists at Newcastle University have for the first time been able to record spontaneous epileptic activity in brain tissue that has been removed from patients undergoing neurosurgery. Led by Newcastle University’s Dr Mark Cunningham, the research has revealed that a particular type of brain wave pattern associated with epilepsy is caused by electrical connections between nerve cells in the brain - rather than chemical ones..

Eight out of 10 schools surveyed in England have created or amended their medical policies since receiving the ‘Medical Conditions at School: Policy Pack’ created jointly by Diabetes UK, Asthma UK, the Anaphylaxis Campaign and Epilepsy Action.