Alzheimer’s doesn’t forgive anyone once it is installed in the human brain. It’s the most common form of dementia, and it also qualifies as one of the leading causes of death in the world. But the good news is that medical researchers are constantly looking for ways to fight the terrible neurodegenerative disease.
According to MedicalXpress.com, there’s an anti-seizure medication that shows to be useful in improving cognitive functions for some patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and also manifest epileptic activity in their brains.
Levetiracetam was tested
The dose used for testing was 125mg twice a day, and 54 individuals suffering from mild Alzheimer’s were analyzed. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) were used.
Keith Vossel, MD, MSc, and also director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research from UCLA, declared as quoted by MedicalXpress.com:
This is a drug that’s used for epilepsy,
We used it in this study for Alzheimer’s patients who had evidence of silent epileptic activity, which is seizure-like brain activity without the associated physical convulsions.
Dr. Vossel added as also cited by MedicalXpress.com:
There’s a subtype of Alzheimer’s disease, consider it an epileptic variant, that’s quite common, occurring in approximately 60% of patients. Patients with this form of Alzheimer’s disease show symptomatic improvement with levetiracetam.
According to Vossel’s statements, some clinical features are pointing to silent epileptic activity for some of Alzheimer’s patients.
There are so many surprising facts about Alzheimer’s, according to Healthline.com.
Here are some of them:
- Education can lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
- Treating Alzheimer’s disease is costly.
- Alzheimer’s was discovered in the last century.
- Women have a higher risk.
The new study was published in Jama Neurology.