Latest on Epilepsy
6-07-2010 New Research into Light Therapy as a Potential Treatment for Epilepsy
There is a new clinical trial taking place at the University College London (UCL) investigating whether light therapy could benefit people with epilepsy who continue to have seizures after trying several types of medication.
The research, which is being carried out at the UCL Institute of Neurology and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, is being funded by children's health charity Action Medical Research in the UK. The UCL researchers are aiming to find out whether light therapy reduces the number of seizures people experience.
One hundred people who have complex partial seizures will take part in the trial. They will be divided into two groups that will receive two different intensities of light, and the effect on the number of seizures they have will be measured.
Dr Sallie Baxendale is the lead researcher at University College London's Institute of Neurology and she said that "there is evidence that light therapy may help people with seizures, as a pilot study suggested that people suffer fewer seizures on sunny compared to dull days. We hope that this study will provide evidence on the effect of light therapy, and that one day it could be used as a treatment for patients who don't respond to medications."
"The impact of epilepsy on people who don't respond to current treatments can be devastating and we believe that this project will provide more data on the role of light therapy in treating epilepsy, possibly, in the future, resulting in an alternative treatment," said Dr Yolande Harley, Deputy Director of Research at Action Medical Research.
There is a variety of evidence which indicates that light therapy could be beneficial in the treatment of epilepsy. Studies that have been carried out suggest that epilepsy is more prevalent in northern than southern Europe and also, sunlight influences the production of melatonin and vitamin D, two naturally occurring substances that both have links with seizure activity. It is interesting to note that light therapy is an established treatment for depression and the biological pathways involved in depression are also implicated in epilepsy.
