Ptsd antiepileptic

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although studies have shown posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with risk of suicide, the relationship in later life, especially for overdose death, remains unclear. Thus, the aim of the current study was to determine associations between PTSD, suicide, and unintended overdose death in mid- to late-life. METHODS: A nationwide cohort study integrating Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) data, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data, and national cause-specific mortality data...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disabling psychiatric condition with a critical familiar, personal, and social impact. Patients diagnosed with PTSD show various symptoms, including anxiety, depression, psychotic episodes, and sleep disturbances, complicating their therapeutic management. Only sertraline and paroxetine, two selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are approved by different international agencies to treat PTSD. In addition, these drugs are generally combined with psychotherapy to achieve positive results...

Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug that was Food and Drug Administration approved in 2003 for use in the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder to delay the time to recurrence of new mood episodes. The mechanism by which lamotrigine achieves its therapeutic effect in the treatment of bipolar disorder is unknown. Here, we report on 2 Veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) endorsing significant anger, aggression, and agitation, who were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, but whose residual symptoms of anger and aggression were ultimately successfully managed with lamotrigine augmentation...

Background: Lithium is still the first-line agent for bipolar disorder. Despite common knowledge on monitoring lithium levels to prevent toxicity, it still occurs at varying degrees. Here we present a rare sequela of lithium toxicity, the Syndrome of Irreversible Lithium-Effectuated Neurotoxicity (SILENT). Case Presentation . A 56-year-old male war veteran who is fully functional despite being on chronic lithium therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and bipolar disorder presented at the emergency room with altered mental status and seizures associated with elevated lithium levels and renal insufficiency...

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are classified as a somatoform conversion disorder. We present a case of a 24-year-old male with a past psychiatric history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorder, admitted to our inpatient psychiatric unit. The patient experienced multiple episodes of seizures during hospitalization. Work up was unremarkable, and PNES were suspected and later confirmed with video-electroencephalography (video-EEG). He underwent supervised withdrawal of antiepileptic medications with the initiation of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which reduced the frequency of seizures...

Introduction: Determine the association between acquired stuttering (AS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a cohort of 309,675 U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The secondary aim was to determine the association between AS and medication patterns for veterans in the sample. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study using data from the Veterans Health Administration National Repository for veterans deployed in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and who received Veterans Health Administration care in 2010 and 2011...

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: Mood disorders are often complicated by comorbidity with epilepsy. Anxiety and personality disorders may worsen prognosis and treatment outcome. Lacosamide has been recently introduced as adjunctive treatment for partial epilepsy. Its mechanism consists of selective slow inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels, thus promoting an extended stabilisation of cell membranes. Antiepileptic drugs have been largely used since the 1950s in psychiatry as mood stabilisers due to their membrane stabilising and anti-kindling effects...

OBJECTIVE: We examined patterns of antiepileptic drug (AED) use in a cohort of Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans (IAVs) who were previously identified as having epilepsy. We hypothesized that clinicians would be more likely to prescribe newer AEDs and would select specific AEDs to treat seizures based on patient characteristics including gender and comorbidities. METHODS: From the cohort of IAVs previously identified with epilepsy between fiscal years 2009 and 2010, we selected those who received AEDs from the Veterans Health Administration in FY2010...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a pathological response to trauma characterized by frequent recollections, recurrent nightmares, and flashbacks of the traumatic event(s). To date, the precise mechanisms underlying the development of PTSD remain unknown. Several studies have suggested that antiepileptic drugs, such as gabapentin and lamotrigine, may be effective in the treatment of PTSD symptoms. We report on a 15-year-old Japanese female junior high school student who developed PTSD symptoms following repeated teasing from male classmates...

RATIONALE: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, debilitating disorder. Only two pharmacological agents are approved for PTSD treatment, and they often do not address the full range of symptoms nor are they equally effective in all cases. Animal models of PTSD are critical for understanding the neurobiology involved and for identification of novel therapeutic targets. Using the rodent PTSD model, single prolonged stress (SPS), we have implicated aberrant excitatory neural transmission and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) upregulation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (HPC) in fear memory abnormalities associated with PTSD...

INTRODUCTION: At present, the substances acamprosate, naltrexone and disulfiram are available for pharmacotherapy in alcohol dependence, but clinical studies found only modest effect sizes of these treatment options. AREAS COVERED: This article focuses on current pharmacological treatment approaches for alcohol dependence, which have been evaluated in randomized, placebo-controlled trials (RCTs). EXPERT OPINION: Besides the opioid system modulator nalmefene, which has recently been approved as a medication for the reduction of alcohol consumption, several compounds have been investigated in patients with alcohol dependence using a randomized, placebo-controlled design...

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a hypersensitivity syndrome most commonly associated with antiepileptic agents, allopurinol, and sulfonamides. It is a severe adverse reaction associated with fever, rash, eosinophilia, lymphadenopathy, and internal organ involvement. We present the case of a 17-year-old Caucasian female with bipolar disorder type II and posttraumatic stress disorder treated with lamotrigine for a non-Food and Drug Administration-approved indication that developed DRESS syndrome at an initial dose higher than that recommended...

Lamotrigine is an antiepileptic drug with broad spectrum of actions, also approved for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Growing number of reports document the antiaggressive effect of lamotrigine in various psychiatric diseases. However, there has been only 1 study in the literature investigating the role of lamotrigine in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but its antiaggressive aspect was not observed. Although aggression is commonly associated with PTSD, there is paucity of data considering its management...

Vivid recollection of a particular past memory is a rare ictal phenomenon in temporal lobe epilepsy. When the memory is traumatic, the presentation may mimic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We report a woman with temporal lobe epilepsy who was misdiagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder for two years before she had a suspected generalised seizure; video-EEG monitoring confirmed that her episodes were epileptic. Adequate treatment with an antiepileptic medication resulted in total resolution of the episodes...

INTRODUCTION: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may affect 10% of women and 5% of men at some stage, and symptoms may persist for several years. Risk factors include major trauma, lack of social support, peritraumatic dissociation, and previous psychiatric history or personality factors. METHODS AND OUTCOMES: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of interventions to prevent PTSD? What are the effects of interventions to treat PTSD? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to March 2009 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review)...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review and summarize existing literature regarding pharmacological interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents. A literature search limited to articles focused on the pharmacological treatment of children aged 0-18 years with a history of trauma and/or PTSD was conducted through the National Library of Medicine and PsychInfo, 1967-present, and each citation manually reviewed. RECENT FINDINGS: Pharmacologic trials for pediatric PTSD are limited in scope and number, with one small double-blind, randomized controlled trial of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline...

BACKGROUND: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently linked antiepileptic drug (AED) exposure to suicide-related behaviors based on meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. We examined the relationship between suicide-related behaviors and different AEDs in older veterans receiving new AED monotherapy from the Veterans Health Administration (VA), controlling for potential confounders. METHODS: VA and Medicare databases were used to identify veterans 66 years and older, who received a) care from the VA between 1999 and 2004, and b) an incident AED (monotherapy) prescription...

Various psychiatric disorders can contribute to psychogenic nonepileptic events (PNEEs), including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We hypothesize that among patients with PNEEs and PTSD, the nature of the traumatic experience leading to PTSD has an association with the clinical manifestations of PNEEs. We found that the presence of PTSD, in general, did not demonstrate significant association with any particular PNEE semiology in a veterans population. However, 11 of 12 (91.7%) subjects with PNEEs and specifically combat-related PTSD showed significant predilection for hypomotor or nonmotor PNEEs, as compared to 5 of 12 (41...

INTRODUCTION: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may affect 10% of women and 5% of men at some stage, and symptoms may persist for several years. Risk factors include major trauma, lack of social support, peritraumatic dissociation, and psychiatric or personality factors. METHODS AND OUTCOMES: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of interventions to prevent; and to treat PTSD? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library and other important databases up to December 2006 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review)...

BACKGROUND: The short- and long-term behavioral effects of a brief course of pregabalin, an antiepileptic structural analogue of alpha-aminobyturic acid with analgesic and anxiolytic effects, were assessed in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD: Two-hundred thirty-three adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were employed. Behavioral responses to traumatic stress exposure (predator urine scent) were assessed immediately after (1 h) and 30 days after treatment with saline or pregabalin (at doses of 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg) in terms of behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and the acoustic startle response (ASR) paradigms...