The team will present some of its findings next month at an American Clinical Neurophysiology Society meeting in Los Angeles. A report on the research also will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Seizure, a medical journal specializing in epilepsy. It may be applicable to thousands people in the United States. Possible side effects include slight voice alterations and occasional tight feelings in the throat, Vaughn said. Some patients report a tingling sensation when the device discharges, but most patients stop noticing side effects with time.
Battery life is about three years, and no one knows for sure how the device stops seizures.
Drugs most often prescribed for epilepsy include phenytoin, phenobarbital and carbamazepine, said Vaughn, who testified before the FDA panel that recommended approving the stimulator. Others involved in the research at UNC-CH include Drs. Always before, we have given medicine and tried to change the environment in the brain around where seizures start by flooding the body with drugs. Now we are trying to change the environment by stimulating nerves upstream toward the brain. This is a very different philosophy of treatment.