Video of the Week: Perampanel Reduces Seizure Frequency

Daily adjunctive therapy with the investigational oral drug perampanel significantly reduced the frequency of seizures by 5%-14%, compared with placebo. The data come  from a multinational phase III clinical trial of 388 patients with hard-to-control epilepsy that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

Patients in the study had uncontrolled epilepsy despite being on one to three other antiseizure drugs, and they continued their usual medications during the trial, according to study investigator Dr. Jacqueline A. French.

Our reporter Sherry Boschert talked with Dr. Marc Nuwer, professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who said that the most exciting thing about perampanel is that it establishes a new category of drugs.

You can read more about the study by visiting Clinical Psychiatry News online.

Video of the Week: Is Psychiatry Ready for Deep Brain Stimulation?

A panel of experts at the the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said that preliminary research into the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) has shown promise for the treatment of a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Despite the possibilities that treatment with DBS may offer, caution is needed, according to Dr. Benjamin Greenberg of Brown University, who spoke with our reporter Esther French.

My strong advice would be that psychiatrists first need to think about whether they’ve really exhausted all conventional treatments … and there are a lot of treatments that one could potentially use, including one thing that is often neglected, which is residential behavioral therapy.

Dr. Greenberg estimates that it takes about 5 years to exhaust all other treatment possibilities but at that time, DBS becomes a treatment option.  DBS is currently used with success to treat movement disorders.

Be sure to check out our newest Web site, Clinical Psychiatry News, for the latest psychiatric medicine news.