A third of epileptic patients do not respond well to medication. In these so-called refractory patients, stimulation of the vagus nerve can have an antiepileptic effect. But this suppletive treatment is not always effective. At Saint-Luc, doctoral students are trying to understand why.
By Anne-Sophie Leurquin
L’Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease whose causes are secondary (following brain damage) or genetic. Although it affects approximately 1% of the population and can occur at any age, the “great evil” remains unknown to the general public and carries many prejudices. “People often associate epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizures (loss of consciousness and muscle twitching), but it can also manifest as small seizures. These first make the lives of people with epilepsy even more complicated,” laments neurologist-researcher Riëm El Tahry (Saint-Luc University Clinics).
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