Epilepsy Ireland and our partner organisations in the FACS Forum Ireland welcomes that the Health Service Executive is taking the step of directly writing to women taking Sodium Valproate (Epilim) in the coming weeks to highlight the risks of the drug in pregnancy and to inform them of recent changes to how the drug is prescribed and monitored.
Cannabidiol (CBD) was shown in a new large-scale, randomized, controlled trial to reduce the number of seizures in patients with a severe form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The study was conducted with Epidiolex which is manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has stated that parents affected by the drug sodium valproate have been 'let down' after the issue was raised yesterday in the Dáil by Fianna Fail TD, Bobby Aylward.
The Minister met with a selection of parents affected by the drug last month and has expressed his commitment to the issue.
"Unlike in the past with other people in the Department of Health I've taken a very interest in this issue", said Minister Harris.
A new partnership between FutureNeuro, the SFI Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological diseases based at RCSI and GreenLight Medicines, an indigenous Irish biopharmaceutical company has been formed to develop new cannabis-based treatments for drug resistant epilepsies, and in particular, childhood epilepsies.
To mark National Epilepsy Week (May 14th – 20th) which begins today, Epilepsy Ireland has announced results of a survey conducted among young people aged 16-21 on their experience of living with the condition.
Developing new treatments for childhood epilepsies and neuro-developmental diseases is the aim of a new partnership between RCSI (FutureNeuro, the SFI Research Centre for chronic and rare neurological diseases based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. announced today. The 3-year partnership aims to guide scientists to new gene targets to control some of the devastating childhood epilepsies that do not respond to existing therapies.
The FACS Forum spoke today at a health committee on Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome.
Karen Keely of OACS Ireland, whose three sons all had birth defects after she took sodium valproate, read out emotional statements on behalf of other Mothers who have been affected by the drug. Many of the families attended the hearing.
People with epilepsy in England and Wales are more likely to die of unnatural causes including suicide and fatal accidents to overdoses, a study has found.
Though the risks of dying unnaturally for people with epilepsy are small in absolute terms (0.3-0.5%), they are greater than in people without epilepsy says Dr Hayley Gorton from The University of Manchester.
A natural compound found in cannabis may help to prevent the frequency seizures, according to a review in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
The evidence to date, however, is confined to the treatment of children and teens whose epilepsy does not respond to conventional drugs, and rare and serious forms of the condition, warn the researchers.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland has today issued instructions to all pharmacists that they must inform women of child-bearing age of the potential risk of abnormal pregnancy outcomes when supplying sodium valproate (Epilim). This includes providing counselling and including a Package Leaflet and Alert Card with each supply of the drug.
The new directive comes after the European Medicines Agency's recent recommendations on risk minimisation.
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