Can a chip cure seizures?

Imagine a chip, strategically placed in the brain, that could prevent epileptic seizures or allow someone who has lost a limb to control an artificial arm just by thinking about it.It may sound like science fiction, but University of Florida researchers are developing devices that can interpret signals in the brain and stimulate neurons to perform correctly, advances that might someday make it possible for a tiny computer to fix diseases or even allow a paralyzed person to control a prosthetic device with his thoughts.

Armed with a $2.5 million grant they received this year from the National Institutes of Health, UF researchers from the College of Medicine, the College of Engineering and the McKnight Brain Institute have teamed up to create a "neuroprosthetic" chip designed to be implanted in the brain. They are currently studying the concept in rats but are aiming to develop a prototype of the device within the next four years that could be tested in people.

The initial goal? To correct conditions such as paralysis or epilepsy."We really feel like if we can do this, we'll have the technology to offer new options for patients," said Justin Sanchez, Ph.D., director of the UF Neuroprosthetics Research Group and an assistant professor of pediatric neurology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering. "There's kind of a revolution going on right now in the neurosciences and biomedical engineering. People are trying to take engineering approaches for directly interfacing with the brain."The hope is we can cure more immediately a variety of diseases."

Researchers have been able to decode brain activity for years using electroencephalography. Referred to commonly as an EEG, this technology involves placing a sensor-wired net over the head to measure brain activity through the scalp. But the technology wasn't quite sensitive enough to allow researchers to decode brain signals as precisely as needed, Sanchez said. Now researchers are focusing on decoding signals from electrodes placed directly into the brain tissue using wires the width of a strand of hair."(Scientists have) realized that by going inside the brain we can capture so much more information, we can have much more resolution," Sanchez said.

The chip UF researchers are seeking to develop would be implanted directly into the brain tissue, where it could gather data from signals, decode them and stimulate the brain in a self-contained package without wires. In the interim, UF researchers are studying implantable devices in rats and are evaluating an intermediate form of the technology - placing electrodes on the surface of the brain - in people.

UF researchers have developed new techniques using surface electrodes to access signals almost as precisely as they could with sensors implanted in the brain, according to findings the researchers published in May in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. Developing these techniques is a big step forward in understanding how to best decode a patient's intent from their brain waves and should have broad implications for delivering therapy, Sanchez said. To gather data about the brain's sophisticated cues, which vary from person to person, Sanchez studies the brain signals of children with epilepsy who are scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the part of the brain that is causing seizures.

These patients often must be monitored for several days to weeks with electrodes placed directly on the brain. Doctors use this to pinpoint the problem area when a child has another seizure.Because the children already have electrodes in place, Sanchez is able to use the data gathered from them to understand more about the brain's signals in general.UF researchers are also working on intermediate concepts that could be wearable, like a diabetes pump, Sanchez said."We have intermediate designs that connect to the brain, interpret signals and can wirelessly send commands to devices," he said.

"This is another path of technology we're pursuing."To create these technologies, Sanchez is in the process of developing a center for brain-machine interfaces at UF with faculty from the College of Engineering, including Jose C. Principe, Ph.D.; John G. Harris, Ph.D.; Toshikazu Nishida, Ph.D.; and Rizwan Bashirullah, Ph.D.But several challenges face researchers in bringing these technologies to patients, said Steven J. Schiff, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of engineering and neuroscience at The Pennsylvania State University and director of the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering.

For patients with epilepsy, who often have to take several medications or undergo surgery for relief from debilitating seizures, a neuroprosthetic device could be the best form of treatment, Schiff said, adding that more work needs to be done to understand the mechanics of what causes diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson's."The challenge is not so much the technology," Schiff said. "The challenge is to use that technology wisely."

The day may not be too far off when patients can control a prosthetic hand or leg just by thinking about it, Sanchez said. "It's becoming a reality," Sanchez said. "We're designing electronics that we can interface with biological systems and we can use that to help people."

What triggers seizures?

Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins was zipping around high school gyms in Las Vegas Monday, traversing the city in a rental car.

But he wasn't driving. He can't, and he won't for five more months.

Hawkins had a seizure in his office on June 29. He spent three days in the hospital. And as a result of the seizure, under Michigan state law, he can't drive for six months.

So, for the foreseeable future, Hawkins needs a driver. That means assistants Clayton Bates and Cornell Mann have chauffeured him around Las Vegas and at last week's Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C.

Once Hawkins returns to Kalamazoo, Mich., his new director of basketball operations, Phil Sayers, will be his driver. Sayers will pick up Hawkins early in the morning -- before 7 a.m. when workouts and practices begin -- and then either Sayers or Hawkins' wife, Lana, will drive him home at the end of the day.

Steve Hawkins' coaching lifestyle contributed to a seizure that put him in the hospital for three days.

But how did this happen to a seemingly healthy 44-year-old coach?

Well, the key word here is "seemingly." Upon further examination, Hawkins found that his lifestyle may have contributed to his condition, and what he learned serves as fair warning to all coaches who burn too much of the day and sleep too little at night.

"What I was told was they don't want to find a reason [like an abnormality] for a seizure because if they do, then it's usually pretty bad like a tumor or meningitis or something along those lines," Hawkins said by phone from Las Vegas. "So, they let me talk about my lifestyle. I started talking to the neurologist for a while, and he had heard enough.

"I told him that I had gone six straight weeks where I had not gotten over six hours of a sleep a night, and I was coming off a night when I had two-and-a-half hours of sleep. It was our 10th camp day in the last 12 days, and I was trying to hire two assistant coaches."

Hawkins said he was told by his doctors that sleep deprivation can be a powerful trigger of seizures and exhaustion.

"The doctors said there were no guarantees, but they were willing to bet that it was that," Hawkins said.

So Hawkins is on anti-seizure medication to be sure, and he's ensuring that he's getting six to seven hours of sleep a night.

"I don't know the last time I was in bed in Las Vegas at 12:30 a.m., but it's happening now," Hawkins said.

He's also seeking out advice on how to handle the medical condition and the stress. He said that Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson called him and told him that he had a similar episode when he was at Montana Tech in the early 1980s. Sampson has not had a seizure since.

"I had a reaction, a seizure, a bad one when I was at Montana Tech, more of a reaction to iodine after I had back surgery," Sampson said Tuesday. "My mother came out, and my wife was pregnant, and it was just a hard time. I heard about [Hawkins'] seizures, and I wanted to call him. I haven't had any problems since. It's an unbelievable thing to not have control of your body. [Hawkins] is a good guy and a good coach. I knew that after we played them last season."

When Hawkins was at the Peach Jam last week, he sought out Ohio State's Thad Matta. Matta is nursing a surgically repaired back and, like Hawkins and many other coaches, is an intense competitor and a tireless worker.

"We just talked about lifestyle," Hawkins said.

Hawkins' adjustment to a more balanced schedule has been made easier by the fact that he hasn't had to extend himself too much this month because he has a veteran team returning. The Broncos finished 16-16 last season and 9-7 in the MAC with a roster void of seniors.

Western Michigan had its moments last season, beating Virginia Tech by three in Orlando, taking out San Diego State at home by 11 and crushing league favorite Kent State at home by 22 points.
Despite the prospect of competing in the always tough MAC this season, Hawkins anticipates coaching without any issues, barring unforeseen complications. He's learned his lesson.

Epilepsy vs. Migraines

Recent studies have indicated that those who suffer from epilepsy are also likely to suffer from migraine headaches. Therefore special treatment considerations need to be given to those who experience both disorders.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a brain disorder triggered by an abnormal neural discharge. The causes are generally unknown although there is thought to be a genetic link; brain injury is also suggested as a cause for epilepsy. Epilepsy involves very sudden albeit brief seizure attacks where motor activity is affected and various other symptoms may occur. Seizures can be separated into a beginning, middle and end. Symptoms occurring throughout the phases can include:

* Fear and panic

* Nausea, headache and dizziness

* Drooling, convulsions and memory loss

* Twitching movements

* Depression and exhaustion

* Intense sweating and tremors

* Difficulty breathing and pain

* Visual, smell and other sensory disturbances

It is also important to note that headaches can happen prior to the onset of a seizure and may be a symptom of a seizure itself. The strain of worrying about seizures can also be particularly difficult and stressful, leading to an increase in migraine headaches.

Addressing Both Conditions

Migraines involve throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head with other symptoms such as dizziness, visual disturbances and nausea. In a sense, it's good news that migraines share some of the characteristics of epilepsy, because you can address both conditions simultaneously when they co-exist. It is thought that migraines and epilepsy are both triggered by hormones, anxiety, stress and alcohol, so limiting these and developing coping strategies may help.

There is also the suggestion that a migraine headache may precipitate a seizure although this is still controversial.

It is important that if you are experiencing migraines alongside your seizures, you should seek treatment for both conditions. Despite the links and similarities, migraine headaches are a distinctly different condition than epilepsy and your doctor should provide an accurate diagnosis. Most doctors will be sensitive to the differential diagnosis of migraines and epilepsy and if you do suffer from both, treatment will collectively address both conditions.

Some drugs may be appropriate for one condition but may have detrimental effects on the other. Certain classes of anti-depressants, for example, are helpful for migraine but can increase the frequency of seizures.

Medication

Anti-convulsants, which are prescribed for epilepsy, have been used in migraine patients without the condition, although this practice of using a drug for a different disorder than it was intended is not always viewed as a favourable one. One drug recently examined is an anti-epilepsy drug called topiramate and it was found to be effective for migraine treatment.

Topiramate limits the stimulation of cells in the brain, which appears to help both epilepsy and migraines and further strengthens the proposed link between the two. For those who suffer from both conditions, however, use of one drug to treat two conditions can make treatment easier. Research results are still quite mixed regarding the effectiveness of various anti-convulsants but your doctor can decide if this treatment is appropriate for you.

It is unfortunate that migraines are not always viewed as a serious disease and so a person is more likely to seek treatment for epilepsy than migraines. It is, however, important that you seek treatment for symptoms occurring from both. There is help for epileptics who suffer from migraines but you need to ask for it.

Victim of violence suffered from seizures

Two men who attacked another man outside a chip shop in Dublin have each been handed a two-year suspended jail sentence.

Elliot Naughton (25) of Grand Canal Place, James's Street, Dublin and John Kenny (22) of Lissadel Rd, Drimnagh pleaded guilty before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Damien McEntee causing him harm at Gino's Take Away, South Circular Road on January 22nd, 2006.
The victim later lost consciousness on the way to St James's Hospital and suffered seizures in the emergency department.

The court heard Mr McEntee had a pre-existing head wound from a road accident in 1996 which, along with the fresh impact to his head from the assault, had caused the seizures.
Judge Anthony denounced what he called "this trend in modern society for violence to be used as a first resort".

Judge Hunt ordered Naughton and Kenny to each pay €1,000 compensation to their victim and told them to stay away from Mr McEntee for the three years of the suspension or their sentences would be activated after noting that the victim feared they might come after him again.
Naughton had nine previous convictions and Kenny had six but neither had come to garda attention since this incident.

Counsel for Naughton said this was his client's "first violent crime" but accepted that he had behaved badly in returning to the scene with "reinforcements".

Kenny's counsel said his client had drink taken on the night and wrongly believed his friend had been assaulted.

How can you deal with seizures?

EPILEPSY drugs are out of stock at the National Medical Stores (NMS), a situation the Epilepsy Support Association have called a disaster.

"Some of our clients depend only on drugs and a few are deteriorating into status epilepticus condition," says the executive director, Augustine Mugarura.

Status epilepticus is where an epileptic suffers continuous attacks without intervals of consciousness. It can lead to brain damage and death Dr Ian Rwakaizi, a psychiatric officer at Butabika Hospital, explained epilepsy (ensimbu) as a group of common chronic neurological disorders that are characterised by recurrent unprovoked epileptic seizures.

Epilepsy is usually controlled, not cured, with medication, although surgery may be considered in difficult cases. Some epilepsy syndromes stop after childhood.

Mugarura says their organisation works as a community drug bank. "We buy drugs and send to groups whose members are registered with us," he says.

"Each member contributes some money, the amount of which depends on where they hail from. People from Mbarara pay around sh2,000 per month."

Anyone, including epileptics, their caretakers, relatives and friends can become a member. "Ask at your nearby hospital for your local branch," Mugarura says.
Their website is http://www.epilepsy.org.ug/ .

Causes of epilepsy

Rwakaizi said epilepsy can: Be genetic; result from any injury to the brain, say from a blow to the head, causing trauma or injury to a baby's brain during birth, or while it is still in the womb if the pregnant mother gets an infection, does not eat properly, smokes or abuses drugs or alcohol; or during birth.

It can also result from environmental and occupational hazards, exposure to chemicals like lead and carbon monoxide, or due to sustained lack of sleep, stress, or hormonal changes and withdrawal from certain anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs.

Diseases like stroke, heart attacks and other conditions that affect the blood supply to the brain can also cause epilepsy. Others like meningitis, cerebral malaria, viral encephalitis, severe lowering of blood glucose levels, malfunctioning of the liver or kidneys, brain tumour and Aids, are also causes.

How can you avoid it?

Be aware of certain triggers. According to the Medical Encyclopaedia, these include reading too much, hot water on the head, or flickering lights. Others are constipation, menstruation, stress or anxiety, alcohol consumption and physical trauma.

Rwakaizi advises that before anyone gets married, they should take a full historical chronology of the person's family to check any epilepsy genes.

Other precautions include making sure that women deliver in hospitals and that disease is treated as early as possible.

Treatment

Epilepsy is usually treated with medication prescribed by a health worker. In some cases, a neurosurgical operation or a special diet can be helpful. Reducing the frequency or severity of seizures; or, in some patients, an operation can be curative.

Responding to a seizure

In most cases, the proper emergency response to an attack is simply to prevent the patients from self-injury by moving them away from sharp edges, placing something soft beneath the head and carefully rolling them into the recovery position to avoid suffocation.

Should the person throw up, the material should be allowed to drip out the side of the person's mouth by itself. If a seizure lasts longer than five minutes, or if the seizures begin coming in 'waves' (one after another), then rush the patient to hospital immediately.

During a seizure, objects should never be placed in a person's mouth as this could result in serious injury to either party.

Despite common talk, it is not possible for a person to swallow their tongue during a seizure.
However, it is more likely the person will bite their tongue, especially if an object is placed in the mouth. When the person is unconscious, never attempt to rouse them. Let the seizure take its full course.

After a seizure, the person may go into a deep sleep or remain disoriented and often unaware that they have just had a seizure. Keep the person under observation until complete recovery. Do not feed them anything until they have returned to normal. The epileptic should not be allowed to wander about unsupervised. Many patients will sleep deeply for a few hours after a seizure, others get headaches which respond to medications.

Please note how long and how severe the seizure was and any mannerisms displayed during the seizure. The doctor will need this information in diagnosing the type of seizure the person gets.
Treatment with drugs

Some medications can be taken daily in order to prevent seizures altogether or reduce the frequency of their occurrence. These are termed "anticonvulsant" or "anti-epileptic" drugs. All such drugs have side effects that have to be managed. Make sure they are given under the supervision of a health worker.

Treatment with surgery

Surgical treatment is required when an underlying brain abnormality, such as a tumour, can be identified. The abnormality must be removable by a neurosurgeon. It is usually only offered to patients whose epilepsy has not been controlled by adequate attempts with multiple medications.
Mbale's CURE Children's Hospital, in conjunction with West Virginia, US, developed a comprehensive epilepsy evaluation and treatment centre which introduced the first epilepsy surgery programme for medically intractable epilepsy in East Africa. According to Peter Sagabo, an officer at CURE Hospital, they have performed successful surgeries.

Benjamin Warf, a medical director and chief of surgery at CURE Mbale, was reported on the net saying they are evaluating 400 to 450 patients a year in Mbale's Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.
Sagabo says the total cost of surgery is around sh2.6m and currently, the procedure is limited to patients between six and 20 years of age.

Other treatment

The Johns Hopkins University recommended Ketogenic diets, which are high in fat and extremely low in carbohydrates, with intake of fluids often limited. It is believed that it increases the acidity which alters the brain metabolism.

Their study reported that 50% of those patients starting the Ketogenic diet reported a decrease in seizures of 50% or more, with 29% of patients reporting a 90% reduction in symptoms.

Other treatment methods include acupuncture, psychological interventions and yoga.

Woman's attack caused another woman's seizures

Cutting in line at the Magic Kingdom landed one visitor in jail.

Police said Victoria Walker accused another visitor of cutting the line for the "Mad Tea Party" ride. Reports said she punched Aimee Krause a few times in the head before the two could be separated.

Krause said she's had seizures, memory loss and blurred vision since the May attack.

Walker was allowed to return to her Alabama home, but a judge later issued a warrant for her arrest after hearing of the severity of the injuries.

She was taken to the Orange County Jail where she bonded out of yesterday.

Pesticide vs. seizures

In a story that underscores just how dangerous chemical pesticides can be, two families in Indiana say their lives were forever altered after chemicals were used in their homes. In 1994, New Albany toddler Christie Ebling was an active, bright-eyed girl according to her parents.

But she has spent the years since severely hindered by thousands of seizures, resulting in broken bones, and requiring constant care.

Christie and her brother AJ began to experience the seizures months after powerful pesticides were sprayed in their home. Doctors diagnosed them with chemical exposure. Their mother, Cindy Ebling, miscarried her third child.

Not far away in Indianapolis, the Hannan family was experiencing flu-like symptoms after their home was sprayed for ants. Doctors told Mary Jane Hannan not to have any more children as a result of her level of exposure.

In the case of the Hannans, it turned out a worker admitted in court to having sprayed 15 times the recommended amount of an insecticide containing the organophosphate Diazinon. In 1995, a year after the trouble had begun for both families, the EPA fined pesticide maker Dow $832,000 for failing to report adverse health effects for related chemicals. The Eblings are immersed in their own legal battle now.

Such cases of pesticide poisoning have been reported across the world for decades, and they underscore why it is prudent to exercise extreme caution when it comes to industrial chemicals. The European Union is leading the way with a regulatory framework called the precautionary principle, in which more burden of proof is placed on companies to demonstrate that new chemicals can be safely used.

In North America, it’s clear that integrated pest management, biological control and organic farming and gardening will go a long way to keeping our families, as well as the environment, safer.

Living with monthly Epilepsy seizures

In the summer of 1993, when she was 13, Jenn Lamothe was struck in the head by a baseball. After a brief examination by her family physician, the injury was considered nothing more than a "goose egg" on the forehead and she was sent on her way. In the 14 years that have passed, the injury has not only led to Lamothe being diagnosed as an uncontrolled epileptic; she has lost friends and her job because of it.

"I was in Grade 8, and I was at school when I had my first seizure," says Lamothe. "I just dropped to the ground and that was it." Now 27, Lamothe says she has about three seizures a month and she has learned to live with them, but things weren't always this "stable." As a child, Lamothe's seizures were easy to control as long as she took the proper medication, but around age 20, the pills stopped working and things got out of hand, she says.

"My pills stopped working and I started having seizures constantly," she says. "I have the old funky-chicken grand-master seizures. I was having them two or three times a week and trying to work full-time, but that wasn't really working well." Brought on by "any kind of overall stress - mental, emotional or physical - that becomes too overwhelming," Lamothe says the seizures have left her body bruised by the falls and she often doesn't remember much when she wakes from them.

"It's a part of life and I have come to accept that now, but there will be days, as I say, 'Jenn is out of order' days that I won't work, so I might as well just make use of the days that I do." Throughout her struggle, Lamothe visited countless physicians, but none could provide a full diagnosis, they simply told her she was epileptic and "not controlled anymore." After trying to battle the disease herself, Lamothe traded her full-time job for the safety of her home, but with nowhere to go and fewer and fewer friends coming to visit, she says she fell in a rut.

"You just kind of get sucked into this little hole," she says. "If nobody asks you to talk, you don't talk and you start losing the ability to talk. I felt like that old woman that you ask 'how are you doing?' and she goes off, 'Oh, my sciatica is acting up and my knees...' and so I just stopped going out. "I didn't want to see people anymore, so I just stayed home." Living in Barrie at the time with her husband Jacques' salary as their sole means of survival, the couple decided to move to Sudbury to be closer to family and where the living is more affordable.

Once here, Lamothe, who is originally from Hawkestone, says she spent four years at home, refusing to leave, trying to fight the epilepsy. "Everybody tells you that you have to fight, you know, you have to fight ... and in some cases you do," she says. "You have to be resilient and you have to keep trying to find an answer, but after awhile, if the answers aren't coming, are you losing your life in between? "Those four years where I thought, 'Hey, I'm really working and I'm fighting this disease off.' I was just sitting on the couch. I wasn't doing anything and it's really one of those moments where I said 'you know what? Forget this.' "

By setting goals that may seem mundane to many, such as getting dressed or walking to the corner store alone, and by changing to a vegetarian diet for more energy, Lamothe says she has been able to gain back some of the independence she lost years ago. "It has taken me three years since I have really been trying to work up to getting a full-time life back," Lamothe says. "I'm not there yet, but I'm trying my very best. I am going to suck everything I can out of every minute that I am awake and I will do everything I can." For the last six months, Lamothe has been working from home as a freelance writer and has managed to have five of her works published in The Sudbury Star.

With her most recent effort, a short essay about her struggle with epilepsy, Lamothe was named one of the winners of CBC's "This I Believe" essay contest. She will get a chance to tell her story on CBC Radio One. Lamothe says she heard of the opportunity on the radio one morning as Jacques was getting up for work. After visiting the website and submitting her essay, she says it took producers less than three hours to call her back to say they wanted her to come in and record it for the show.

"They have about 40 essays that they've asked famous Canadians to write and read and then they have people from all over Canada sending some in," Lamothe says. "Essentially, what the essay is about is that you put what a really personal belief of yours is. It's a way to share beliefs with all of Canada without really forcing anybody to change their beliefs.

"So with my essay being about epilepsy, I decided to write about that point in my life where I realized, 'You know what? I can't keep fighting sickness if it isn't going to get any better, so maybe I should just learn to live with it.' " With Jacques' help, which she says has been her strength through it all, that is exactly what Lamothe plans to keep doing.

Viral infections vs. Febrile Seizures

Influenza (flu virus) is the most commonly identified viral infection in children with fever-induced seizures. Other common respiratory viruses linked to "febrile seizures" include adenovirus, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and rotavirus, a study shows.

"Febrile seizures are common causes of pediatric admission and parental concern," write Dr. Virginia Wong and Dr. Brian Chung from Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, in the Archives of Diseases of Childhood. "Viral infection has been hypothesized to be one of the important causative factors."

To see whether some viruses cause more fever-induced seizures than others and whether the type of viral infection predicts seizure recurrence, Wong and Chung analyzed 923 youngsters admitted to the hospital for fever-induced seizures over a period of 5 years.

Overall, 17.5 percent of children had a family history of fever-induced seizure and 2.7 percent had a family history of the seizure disorder epilepsy.

The most common cause of fever in the cohort was respiratory tract infection (79.5 percent), the authors found.

Among all infectious agents identified, influenza, at 17.6 percent, was the most common, followed by adenovirus (16.8 percent), parainfluenza (6.0 percent), RSV (2.7 percent), and rotavirus (1.3 percent), the researchers report.

The type of viral infection is not important in predicting future recurrences, they note.

Neglected child suffers from seizures!

The mother of a badly beaten baby girl is charged with child neglect because she didn’t step in to stop the abuse, police say. Authorities arrested her boyfriend, Maurice Moore, a month ago because they say he was responsible for the skull fractures that caused seizures in the 16-month-old.

The girl’s mother, Ashanta Williams, took the victim to Brooksville Regional Hospital on June 3 because of the seizures. The baby was sent to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg for treatment and the Department of Children and Families took custody of her. A later affidavit written by Brooksville officer Shawn Terry details extensive injuries to the girl, including three broken ribs, skull fractures, stab wounds and trauma from punches.

Some bruises were caused by a beating with a belt or cord and marks around the girls ankles indicated she was tied up at one point, according to the affidavit. Several of the bruises had already healed and left behind scars, the affidavit states, leading Terry to conclude that Williams knew or should have known “that the abuse was occurring and did nothing to protect her child from future violence.”Williams, 26, was arrested Thursday and held on a $50,000 bond.

Trial for uncontrollable seizures?

If you have epilepsy, take daily medication but still experience uncontrolled seizures, you might be a candidate for a trial now underway at USC University Hospital. Neuropace, a company in Mountain View, Calif., has developed a device that's implanted in the skull and designed to provide "responsive stimulation" to the area of the brain that triggers epileptic seizures, attempting to stop the seizures before they cause symptoms.

Called the RNS neurostimulator, the device is controlled by a battery and contains a computer chip designed to detect and store a record of your brain's electrical activity. Of course there are potential risks and side effects, and implantation is a 2- to 5-hour procedure, but interested parties can call 1-866-904-6630 or visit www.seizurestudy.com for more information.

Can cats become service animals that would help with seizures?

Service animals could use a little affirmative action.Dogs, after all, dominate the world when it comes to being officially recognized human helpers. They accompany the blind, the deaf, the diabetic, the disabled. They provide balance support, alert to oncoming seizures, pick up on when a diabetic handler's blood sugar has dropped. They are ubiquitous.

But other animals also perform some of these roles, says Pat Gonser of Citronelle, Ala., founder of Pets and People: Companions in Therapy & Service (petsandpeople.org). Miniature horses, after all, are fast becoming accepted "mobility alternatives" for the visually impaired. And the law doesn't disallow such seemingly unorthodox aides: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, all service animals - not just guide dogs - must be allowed access to public facilities and transportation.

"Some people don't like dogs, but they need a service animal," says Gonser, a former cat breeder and retired registered nurse who started doing therapy work with one of her retired Somali cats in the early 1990s. "Many cats do alert" when something atypical, such as an asthma attack, is imminent. "It's just that people don't realize it," she continues.

"But once you start tracking it, you might notice that the cat is doing something right before, such as pawing at you, or sitting on your chest."(An aside about semantics: Service animals are an entirely different breed than therapy animals: The former do a prescribed job for a disabled individual; the latter provide companionship or emotional support, which, while therapeutic, is not a specific task.)Because there is no organization that trains service cats, Gonser's group provides guidance for owners who want to train their own. Starting with a kitten is best; pedigree is immaterial. With clicker training - in which a small hand-held noisemaker is used to "mark" a desired behavior - a cat can be taught to alert, for example, to the arrival of a seizure.

Like dogs, Gonser says, cats have an "innate sense" - likely spurred by biochemical changes we cannot perceive - of when seizures are coming on. Kitties also can be taught to hit a preprogrammed number on a large-button phone if an owner falls and cannot call for help."It gets to be a little bit difficult because people don't recognize service cats," Gonser says, adding that groups like hers help document bona-fide service animals.Still, black sheep slip through. Consider a 300-pound Vietnamese potbellied pig whose owner had a heart condition and said she needed her as a "therapeutic companion pet" for stress relief.

In 2000, Charlotte left her first-class berth on a US Airways flight, tried to enter the cockpit, refused to leave the galley until a passenger bribed her with food - and left dozens of "When Pigs Fly" headlines in her wake.Regardless of their species, service animals "have to be polite in public and not intrude in other people's space," Gonser says. "And they have to be attentive to the person" they are helping.Some skeptics think cats are not inclined to such selflessness. "Certainly, some cats might circle around and really make it obvious to whoever else is there that there was a problem because they can sense the fluctuations in the energy," says feline behavior consultant Carole Wilbourn of Manhattan.

"But I don't know that they could be trained to do it on command, because you know what cats are like."Gayle Knowlton, 49, of Tucson, Ariz., trained her first service cat more than a decade ago. Her most current one is Pushette Pudie - named for her less-than-shy demeanor - who Knowlton rescued at four days old from a drainage ditch during a downpour."I suffer from severe anxiety and panic attacks, and I have seizures because of it," explains Knowlton, who didn't want a service dog because, at the time, she was a vendor at cat shows, and the species shock would have been too much for her customers. When Pushette detects an impending seizure, "she becomes extremely guarded and won't let anyone near us, and she strokes my face and gets me to focus directly on her."

This can often avert a seizure, Knowlton adds, because the interaction lowers her blood pressure.Still, training a service cat can be more challenging than your average golden retriever. "Cats are a harder package to put together," Knowlton concedes. "You have to get one that's not afraid of anything, and who will listen. And she needs to be unobtrusive - if I bring Pushette to a restaurant, she needs to stay in her basket," which is attached to Knowlton's motorized wheelchair.

Given their felines' less-than-mainstream standing in the service community, owners often retrofit toy-dog vests for them, emblazoned with the words "Service Cat." Pushette, true to form, has taken that to the limit. Knowlton says that since she was entered in a Halloween contest dressed as a French schoolgirl, complete with pinafore panties, Pushette insists on dressing in public. "The minimum I can get away with with her," she says, "is a hat and glasses."Service with style, you might say.

Plagued with daily seizures, a man's life changes thanks to service dog!

Jim Gier suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side and confined him to a wheelchair. At age 65, he turned into a recluse, afraid to leave the house because he was so fearful of the painful daily seizures he suffered."I didn't go anywhere, because I didn't want people to see me shaking," said the Bethlehem resident.But like a number of people, Gier chose not to go it alone. His life changed dramatically when he teamed up with Tonto, a "service dog."

"I had quite a few seizures after getting Tonto," he said, "but once we had bonded, I wasn't afraid to go out anymore."Working with a service dog is a choice more people who can benefit from their presence are making. According to the United States Census for 2000, about 33 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 64, as well 14 million people 65 and over, suffer from some type of disability that limits their mobility and independence.

Service dogs provide an invaluable assistance for people who suffer these impairments, says Darlene Sullivan, founder and executive director of Canine Partners For Life (CPL). Based in Cochranville, the CPL trains service dogs in 43 states to help people suffering from Parkinson's Disease, stroke, paraplegia and several seizure-related conditions."Many people think they are not disabled enough to benefit from the assistance of a dog," explains Sullivan, whose nonprofit company helped Gier find Tonto.

"If you get the dog earlier, however, it will keep you more mobile longer."Afflicted with Parkinson's disease, George Schmid, 60, hoped to stay independent for as long as he could. His strategy: a big black Labrador Retriever named Smokey. "I had to decide if I wanted a walker or a loving animal to help me get up in the morning," said the Pennsville, New Jersey resident. "I opted for Smokey."The effect was near immediate.

Since partnering with the pup last October, Schmid says his walking has become far more fluid and steady. He's there from the start of the day: A daily belly rub on the bed from Schmid and his wife Rose, is all Smokey needs to hop to the floor and resume his duties."He's like having an extra wife - a devoted partner for life," remarked Schmid. "He gives me a little extra get up and go and is always waiting for me at the foot of the bed when I get up in the morning."

Sally McLaughlin's situation is even more challenging. Diagnosed in 2003 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), the 52-year-old Wilmington, Delaware resident can no longer speak. That was no problem for CPL. Trainer Deb Bauer set about retraining Decker, who is also a black Lab. When McLaughlin and Decker's three-week team training sessions began, Decker responded to hand signals flawlessly. Between eye contact and hand signals, the pair quickly learned to communicate.

As keynote "speaker" at CPL's wine auction fundraising dinner last fall, McLaughlin, who now speaks with a synthesizer, described Decker's incredible ability to adapt to her ever changing needs as her arms and legs grow weaker."Since we were partnered last June, Decker has accompanied me solo, with a walker, a scooter, a companion chair, and now a power wheelchair," she says. "He just goes with the flow."

He is smart, too, instinctively knowing that her right hand is much stronger than her left, so he returns items to the right side of her wheelchair, she goes on."As my symptoms progress, I find I rely on him more and more for help," she adds.Tonto, too, is exceptionally smart. The 100-pound Labradoodle (Labrador Retriever and Standard Poodle cross) knows when Gier is about to suffer a seizure.Gier talks about the time he became ill and his wife Charlotte took him and Tonto to the emergency room. The nurses got Gier settled into one of those high hospital beds and a number of caregivers were hovering over him.

Suddenly, Tonto leapt off the floor. He jumped onto a nearby chair, and then sprang over the railing and onto an open space on the bed, carefully climbing on top of his partner, protecting him."What the hell is he doing?" one doctor shouted, not at all pleased. Charlotte Gier explained that her husband would be having a seizure in about 15 minutes. The doctors could not believe it, Jim Gier recalls now with a laugh. They called in all the other doctors and nurses on the floor, waiting to see if that truly happened.Soon the seizures started, and kept going for almost 10 minutes.

Finally, Gier stopped shaking and Tonto jumped to the floor, curling quietly at the foot of the bed, his job well done. "It is a rare dog that has the natural instinct to be a seizure alert dog," said Sullivan, adding that these special dogs must be carefully trained to work safely in public.Gier, whose friends now call him the Lone Ranger, says his stress of being out in public diminished greatly once he got Tonto.

Possibly as a result of the decreased stress, he started having fewer seizures. He used to suffer four or five seizures, but now Gier exclaims that he hasn't had one in over two years.He knows who to thank for that."Tonto is the best friend I ever had," Gier says with a grin.

For more information on Canine Partners For Life, please call 610-869-4902, or visit their Web site at: http://www.k94life.org/.

Teen's surgery to treat seizures is recovering!

A Princeton teen who underwent brain surgey three weeks ago is back home and doing well, her parents said this week.

Lara Worley, 16, was diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering from multiple, severe seizures, sometimes as often as every week. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio hoped that surgery would give the teenager some relief after medication and other treatment options stopped working.

So far, so good, her mother, Neva Worley, said.

"You'd never be able to tell anything in the world happened," said Mrs. Worley, who is a teacher on the elementary side of Princeton School, where Lara is a rising junior. "She went into surgery June 13, which was a Wednesday. She was discharged Saturday, and we came home Sunday."

Lara's friends are also pleased with the changes they have seen.

"They said before, she seemed tired, worn out. But now, it's like the weight of the world is off her shoulders," her mother said.

It has been a month now since Lara's last seizure, which occurred a week before the surgery.
She still has some recovering to do -- her hair is covering a two-inch bald spot and she has to stay away from swimming for at least six weeks -- but the headaches that came right after the surgery have subsided, Mrs. Worley said.

In the meantime, the family is happy to be home, but still waiting for the bill. They are not sure how much debt they could be facing.

Their friends and neighbors in Princeton hace already mobilized to help the family, sponsoring a spaghetti dinner that raised $10,000.

And that support is what keeps the family going, Mrs. Worley said. That, and the fact that Lara is doing well.

She said she knew family and friends were praying back home.

That knowledge helped her and Lara as they waited for word from the doctors on the day of the surgery.

"She stayed with us at the Ronald McDonald House and went into the hospital at 8:30," Mrs. Worley said. "They told her to be ready for surgery at 10 a.m."

Lara was finally wheeled into the operating room at 11:30 a.m.

Waiting wasn't easy, but Mrs. Worley made sure Lara knew that there plenty of well-wishes coming her way.

What she did not know is at that moment, a crowd had gathered in the school cafeteria to pray for a successful surgery and speedy recovery for Lara.

And that circle of prayer did the job, Mrs. Worley said.

"It helped having friends back here supporting us with the benefit and with prayers," she said. "There's not better place to live, work and go to church than Princeton."

Donations to assist the family can still be sent to the Lara Worley Fund, P.O. Box 1016, Princeton, N.C. 27569-1016.

What is the link between Epilepsy and suicide?

Danish researchers also found women with epilepsy were more likely to kill themselves than men with the condition.

People diagnosed with epilepsy in the previous six months were at an even higher risk of committing suicide.

The Lancet Neurology study said greater efforts were needed to control seizures, which could be stigmatising, and had many knock-on effects.

The Aarhus University Hospital team studied 21,169 cases of suicide in Denmark between 1981 and 1997.

Epilepsy lowers the overall quality of life

They found that 492 (2.32%) of the suicide cases had epilepsy. However, the rate of epilepsy among a random matched sample of over 400,000 people in the general population was just 0.74%.

Even after taking account of factors such as mental illness, job status, income and marital status, people with epilepsy were still twice as likely to kill themselves.

And people who had been diagnosed with epilepsy within the previous six months were more than five times more likely to commit suicide.

People with both epilepsy and a psychiatric illness were nearly 14 times more likely to commit suicide than people with neither conditon.

The trend in the general population is for the risk of suicide to increase with age.

But the researchers found that, in the case of people with epilepsy, the risk of suicide fell as they got older.

Big impact on life

Researcher Dr Jakob Christensen said: "There may be a number of factors that have a major impact on the wellbeing of people with chronic disorders such as epilepsy.

"We know that epilepsy lowers the overall quality of life of the affected individuals - especially shortly after the diagnosis is given.

"An epilepsy diagnosis affects important parts of people's lives: job opportunities disappear, patients usually lose their driver's licence, drug treatment may decrease fertility, and pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of congenital malformations of the newborn child.

"The latter may be part of the explanation of why the impact of epilepsy with regard to suicide seems greatest in women."

Dr Christensen added that having seizures could be a very unpleasant and stigmatising experience.

He said; "Epilepsy is not a rare disorder, affecting up to 1% of the population.

"Thus, great efforts should be put into reducing the risk of seizures in patients."

The charity Epilepsy Action said the figures emphasised the impact that epilepsy could have on a person's life.

It is campaigning for better epilepsy services to speed up diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

With the right anti-epileptic drugs, an estimated 70% of people can be kept free of seizures.
A report by MPs published last month suggested almost half of the 990 epilepsy-linked deaths in England each year were avoidable.

However, Professor Ley Sander, of the National Society for Epilepsy, said: "It is almost certainly true that people with epilepsy are at greater risk of committing suicide than people without but why that should be is not clear from this study."

Brain surgery did not harm toddler's personality

Isaac Edens is a normal 4-year-old in many respects: He chatters, hugs, runs and plays. His parents, though, say he's a miracle: He does all this using just 60 percent of his brain.

That's all that works after most of the left side - damaged by a stroke in utero - was removed or disconnected from the right half of his brain during two surgeries in March.

Before the surgeries, his speech lagged one year and 10 months behind other children his age, said his mother, Marsha Edens. He had a minor impairment with how he understood others and with how he expressed his own thoughts, said Laura Lee Corbin, a speech language pathologist for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System who has seen Isaac since November 2002.

Now he's about where he should be for his age, she said.

One recent morning, between swinging a plastic whiffle bat and mowing down plastic bowling pins in his living room, the young boy burbled about toys and books and occasionally weighed in on his progress.

"I feel better now," Isaac said. "I been in the hospital."

Since birth, his small body had been wracked with seizures, which became increasingly worse in the past year, sometimes causing him to stop breathing. He had been in an intensive care unit seven times in the past six months, was airlifted by helicopter in three emergencies, transported three more times by ambulance and was on life support twice.

Isaac now has 25 percent of the left half of his brain, and only a small chunk - the vision center - is still hooked up to the rest of his brain. Neurosurgeons at the Medical College of Georgia removed the middle left section - most of the speech center was destroyed by his stroke - and disabled the left frontal lobe from communicating with the right side of his brain, Edens said. Any more seizures that occur in the left frontal lobe won't be able to impact the remaining "good" part of his brain, she added.

The difficult surgeries have paid off thus far. His seizures have not returned.

"We haven't seen the first little thing," Edens said. "Not at all. And he's just outdone everything they told us."

Not that it's been easy.

"The first surgery was horrible," she said. Isaac had 40 staples around his head and cried in pain for nine days while a ribbon of 56 wires attached directly to his brain read his brain activity and tracked where and when the seizures occurred. He was having seizures inside his head every three to five seconds.

The young boy, who wears glasses, also lost 20 percent of the right side peripheral vision in both eyes and has been hospitalized twice for meningitis.

Despite all this, Edens said she has seen her son at peace for the first time.

"We went into surgery to cure seizures, and we got so much more," she said. "As soon as we went in to see him," after the second surgery, he was sitting up and talking about things he had never talked about before.

"He had a different look. Something I'd never seen before. It was this complete sense of clarity. ... It was almost like he'd been drunk or drugged all his life, and he woke up to this world of knowing what everything was.

"They took all this out of his head, and it's like they flipped a switch. It's like a light went on."

Isaac was up and walking two weeks after surgery. He can open and close his right hand. And his right arm, rather than being clutched to his chest, hangs loosely at his side. For the first time, he is potty-trained. Teaching him such activities was impossible before surgery, Edens said, because near-constant seizures interrupted attempts to learn. They never gave him a chance to develop.
Then there's the talking. He's asking more questions and speaking in longer sentences, Corbin said.

"He's just going, going, going, and we were not seeing this before," she said. "It just shows that the networking of the human brain is incredible. Because of the damaged brain tissue, he was not able to process the information as easily, and by removing that, it's given him that ability now to process the information more effectively."

Corbin, too, called it a miracle.

The Edens have been speaking at churches and support groups since Isaac's surgery. They say they could not have gotten through it without the support of the churches, family and community that helped while Isaac was sick.

Five year old girl saves mom's life during seizures

A five-year-old girl on Long Island, New York made a life-saving call and won the hearts of some very experienced emergency dispatchers in the process. Diavonnie Lofton can drive a toy truck. But, it was a real telephone she operated like a pro this weekend when her mother lost consciousness in their Bayshore home and she dialed 911.

The following is the transcript of the telephone conversation between the dispatcher and Diavonnie:

Dispather -- "Is your mother talking to you? You know what I mean...like conscious? Or are her eyes closed and she's not talking?"

Diavonnie-- "I'm not talking to her. She can't hear right now."

Dispatcher-- "All right. Was she shaking..like? Is that what happened?"

Diavonnie-- "Well, actually, she just came on the bed before her head shaked and her feet shaked."

The 5-year-old amazed dispatchers with her calm intelligence.

Diavonnie told the dispatcher "she is breathing. Her arms aren't waving ..she is looking to the right or the left, I don't know. I don't know my left from the right."

The information she gave ensured a speedy response and her mom who suffers from seizures was rushed to the hospital. Charisse Lofton says she always taught her daughter to call 9-1-1, but never knew she was listening.

Charisse Lofton says "I taught it to her before because I had seizures last year. I didn't know she listened to me, though."

Diavonnie says "I called the police and I said ..that she...had a seizure. "
The little girl gave responders details they needed.

Diavonnie told the dispatcher "The door bell has a number two on it."

And some they didn't.

Diavonnie told the dispatcher "I gotta use the bathroom" and the dispatcher replied "I don't blame you one bit."

Charisse was released from the hospital today. Her seizures may not be over, but her worries about her five-year-old daughter are now that she knows she's not only a good listener, but quite a little talker, too.

Her composure won hearts at Suffolk Emergency Services.

One dispatcher said "I love this kid! I couldn't even do that at this age."

Another said "I'm having trouble today and I'm getting paid for it!

They say there's little doubt she helped save her mother's life.

Beware of fireworks as they can trigger seizures!

If you plan to visit a fireworks display tomorrow, be aware they can trigger seizures in epileptic and photosensitive people.University of Rochester Medical Center neurologist Dr. Giuseppe Erba has an interesting take on the issue.

Erba warns that many people who are at risk are young and unaware of their condition. While avoidance is tricky, Erba suggests that you never attend fireworks displays alone.Viewing fireworks from afar, while less exciting, considerably reduces the risk of seizures, he says.

Service dogs for seizures are special dogs!

Luke, a 3-year old European boxer, is a special dog: He’s allowed to walk the Rehoboth Boardwalk any time of year with his owner, Chris Costas. While this contradicts local ordinances - and some locals are all too happy to let him know, Costas said - the Rehoboth Beach Police Department lets Luke follow Costas’ every step. He has to. Without him, Costas could suffer a seizure at any moment.

He suffers from toxoplasmosis, a virus he contracted during an operation. Because of the virus, Costas can have up to two seizures a month, each lasting about an hour and 20 minutes.
With Luke, however, Costas can avoid seizures altogether. About 30 minutes before a seizure, Luke barks at his owner, jumping, pawing, or boxing to get his attention. Costas is then able to take his antiseizure medication and ward off an attack.

For Costas, 41, the disease was utterly debilitating. The seizures were impossible to detect. Though he’s an acclaimed photographer and interior decorator, the virus excluded him from a professional life.

“My right hand would quiver. Other than that, I had no warning,” he said. “And after the seizures my muscles would be so tight, and I’d be so exhausted, that I’d spend two to three days in a hospital.”
He lived this way for 19 years. Then, three years ago, he met Luke.

“I was living in Miami,” Costas said, “and I had no idea that dogs like Luke even existed. My doctor found him. He even bought him and trained him for me. He knew how much my life had changed.”
While many European nations have been using dogs to detect and prevent seizures for more than 25 years, they are still relatively uncommon in the United States. While seeing-eye dogs - often golden retrievers wearing telltale harnesses - hardly raise alarm in restaurants, Luke has no such precedent to work with.

To foster understanding, Costas took a grassroots approach, introducing himself and Luke to business owners and local officials. His efforts have been met with understanding and accommodation for the most part.

Chief Keith Banks of the Rehoboth Beach Police Department has been working with Costas since Luke was first introduced to the area.

“It’s working out well, I think,” he said.

“He hasn’t felt like he’s been having to tell each officer over and over. Education in any type of illness or special need is the best thing. That’s what we’ve been training our officers to know.”
While Costas appreciates the police department’s efforts, not everyone has been so helpful.
“The police have made it so easy for me, so far as the Boardwalk and beach goes,” he said.

“But there have been a couple of restaurants that have denied me access to their facilities.”
As Costas is ready to point out, such discrimination can be met with a heavy fine. While several owners have denied entrance on the basis of allergies, boxers like Luke are hypoallergenic; they have hair, not fur, and cannot provoke any allergic reaction.

“Actually, they were really rude about it,” Costas said.

Other restaurants, like Cloud 9, accept Luke with understanding and hospitality.
“I’m just so grateful that I’m welcome there,” said Costas.

While Luke is Costas’ dog, his services are by no means exclusive. During a visit to Cloud 9, Luke started barking and pawing at a girl on the dance floor. At first, Costas didn’t understand. He pulled Luke away. Minutes later, the girl collapsed and went into convulsions. She was epileptic. Luke was trying to warn her.

Despite difficulties, Costas continues to educate and inform.“I’m out to make friends, not enemies,” Costas said. “But I can’t participate in general life without my assistant. It’s just that he has four legs instead of two.”

Rare seizure disorder is often mistaken for Autism and Cerebral Palsy

As Healthwatch Reporter Kellye Lynn reports, Angelman Syndrome is often mistaken for autism or cerebral palsy.AS was first described in 1965 when a physician noticed similar characteristics in three children. They had stiffness in their walks, difficulty with speech, occasional seizures and they would often laugh excessively.Justin Kushner is a 10-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with AS. But doctors say he has defied the odds.

"They told us he would never walk, talk, [or] go to the bathroom on his own," said Kushner's mother Melissa Kushner. "They told us we would probably wind up putting him in a home and my husband and I would get a divorce."Although it has not been easy for the Kushner family, Justin's case has been manageable and they avoided some of the pitfalls encountered with children who are misdiagnosed or never treated."Angelman's children have developmental delay, profound speech delay, a happy appearance and odd hand changes where their arms will go up," said Dr. Eric Kossoff from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Seizures have also been common occurrences for many AS patients.Dr. Kossoff estimates about one in every 15,000 children and young adults have AS.Biologists have determined the disorder is caused by a genetic abnormality--specifically a change in chromosome 15, which is inherited from the mother.Experts also say AS is often missed in infancy because the developmental problems are not as evident.Most children with AS get diagnosed between the ages of three and seven with a blood test.

Although there is no known cure, Dr. Kossoff says seizure medications and occupational and speech therapy have been very effective."With a good parent and good care, these children can live long healthy lives," said Dr. Kossoff.Nearly a decade after being diagnosed with AS, Justin Kushner is feeding himself, forming words and going to school.Most children with AS have a normal life span. Diagnosing the syndrome as early as possible can help the child have a better quality of life.

Are seizures responsible for murder?

Oscar Cordoba, the lottery millionaire who allegedly killed his mother-in-law, appeared professorial in his rectangular glasses and light-blue shirt Tuesday as he listened to his attorney tell the jury he suffers from seizures and did not mean to kill the woman four years ago.

The assistant prosecutor said during opening statements that Cordoba, who is in his 50s, committed murder in a jealous rage, stabbing his wife, Sylvia, and then inflicting 12 stab wounds in her mother Julia Bradway's midsection and mutilating her face while Cordoba's child and his wife, who died this March, tried to fight him off.

Cordoba was lucky in one sense, defense attorney John Morris told the attentive jury in Superior Court Judge James Isman's courtroom. Cordoba won nearly $9 million in 1989 in the state lottery and settled into his Egg Harbor Township home with his wife and their three children.

But Morris said the seizures got Cordoba discharged from the army of his native land, Argentina, and eventually destroyed his family after a change in his level of medication made Cordoba see things, hear things and taste sand in his food at the couple's favorite restaurant Sept. 14, 2003. The next morning, at about 6 a.m., he allegedly attacked his wife and killed Julia Bradway, 75, who was visiting from Delaware.

At some point in the argument, Cordoba allegedly pulled out an 8-inch kitchen knife and stabbed his wife in her arms and neck. He then allegedly turned his rage on the mother-in-law, who had come to her daughter's defense.

Cordoba's wife who was in her 50s took off with her children.

Morris told the jury that his client, who sat with his hands often over his mouth Tuesday, should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, which would translate into him being committed, not acquitted of the crime. The lawyer said during the trial doctors will explain Cordoba does suffer from seizures and he could and has done things he cannot remember.

From 1988 on, the Cordobas went to specialists to try to deal with Oscar Cordoba's seizure disorders, Morris said.

Assistant Prosecutor Diane Ruberton said the jurors cannot forget that the legal definition of insanity is not a medical one. It will be up to the jury to decide the definition of insanity. Anger, jealousy — possibly hatred — led to the violent, vicious attacks on Cordoba's family, Ruberton said.

The trial resumes today.

Epilepsy has scandalous stats in UK

The all-party parliamentary group on epilepsy (APPG) has claimed that the current government has failed to address the needs of people with epilepsy in the UK. Epilepsy is a medical condition that causes individuals to experience reoccurring seizures.

APPG claims that over 400 deaths could have been avoided if the government had chosen to spend its £189 million wisely. The report, supported by the Joint Epilepsy Council (JEC), stated that over 69,000 people are living with unnecessary seizures, while 74,000 people are taking drugs they don’t need. Baroness Gould of Potternewton, chair of the APPG, said: "The regularity of avoidable deaths at nearly 400 each year is shocking.

In addition, the numbers of people who experience seizures unnecessarily and the numbers taking anti-epilepsy drugs for which they have no need demands recognition as a national scandal." The APPG has gathered written and oral evidence suggesting that people with epilepsy and their families have been continually left behind by society and has demanded change in the delivery of services to people with this condition.

DNA Test may help to find potential seizures in dogs

Scientists and dog owners throughout the United States have recently begun using DNA testing to study diseases and determine dogs' genetic backgrounds.

DNA testing is also being used to confirm dogs' pedigrees, as a dog's value to a breeder depends heavily on its pedigree, The Los Angeles Times reported.

With the cost of DNA testing coming down, dog owners who are curious about their dogs' behavior or about certain illnesses are finding answers through sequencing technology.

The Times talked to one couple who had their mutt, Drake, tested to determine where some of his behaviors came from. When the tests came back that Drake was part Alaskan husky, the couple said many of the dog's traits began to make sense.

About half a dozen dog DNA testing facilities exist in the United States, the newspaper said, often peddling their services at dog shows and on the Internet.

Vaccine protecting against sexually transmitted virus caused three fatalities!

THREE deaths have been linked to the controversial sex virus jab health officials want to give to all 12-year-old girls.

Doctors suspect the jab, which protects against a sexually transmitted human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer, may also be linked to 1,700 “adverse reactions”.Reports from the US, where the Gardasil vaccine has been used for nearly a year in some states, reveal that three victims died soon after receiving the injection.

They were aged 12, 19 and 20.They seem to have suffered blood clots or heart attacks. Hundreds of others suffered what could be adverse side effects, including paralysis, seizures and miscarriages. The news comes just days after the Department of Health announced the drug would be added to the childhood immunisation programme from autumn 2008.

The findings have alarmed UK health experts. Jackie Fletcher from the vaccine damage support group Jabs, said: “Trials of this jab have mostly been on adults, so we don’t have any idea of the long-term effect on children.”Dr Peter Mansfield, a former GP who runs the Good HealthKeeping clinic in Lincolnshire, said: “It’s absolutely wrong that girls of 12 should be given this jab.”

Dr John Oakley, a west Midlands GP said the trials for Gardasil had been so limited that the children taking it would be like “guinea pigs”.The manufacturers, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, had not planned to release the data, but it was obtained under freedom of information laws by lobbyists Judicial Watch. The findings read like “a catalogue of horrors”, said its president, Tom Fitton.

Other serious possible side effects include paralysis, seizures and neurological conditions such as Bell’s palsy and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which leaves patients paralysed for months and can kill.

Gardasil has stirred up a huge controversy. There is excitement because it is the first vaccine to be approved to fight cancer – but moral campaigners say it will encourage teenagers to have sex early. Others have argued that boys, who also carry the virus, should be vaccinated as well.

A spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), meanwhile, said no “proven, serious new risks have been identified” by the findings, but said the effects would be monitored when Gardasil is used in the UK.Nicholas Kitchin, medical director of Sanofi Pasteur MSD, said the fact that symptoms were reported after a vaccination did not necessarily mean they were caused by the vaccine.