Refractory epilepsy: mechanisms and solutions

Abstract

Pharmacoresistance remains a major challenge in epilepsy management. The availability of ten new antiepileptic drugs since the late 1980s has not dramatically improved the outcome of refractory epilepsy. This article provides an overview of the contemporary understanding of epilepsy and the limitation of current treatment modalities, discusses putative biological mechanisms of medical intractability and reviews some of the novel strategies under investigation to overcome the challenge of pharmacoresistance.

Keywords::

• antiepileptic drugs
• brain stimulation
• drug resistance
• drug transporters
• epilepsy
• gene therapy
• polymers
• seizure detection
• seizures
• stem cell