Electrophysiology of Benign Familial Neonatal Seizures and the Current Therapeutic Approach

Abstract

Although neonatal seizures are not quite prevalent, the occurrences are noticed every year. Specifically, despite the low number of reports, it was found that some patients with a history of benign familial neonatal seizures were more likely to get epilepsies in their later life. However, largely due to the high ethical standards imposed on conducting research on neonatal populations, neonatal seizures and their anti-convulsant treatments are not as well-understood as the cause and the epidemiology of seizures found in adults. This is problematic, as prominent pharmacological approach for the neonatal seizures had been based on adjusting doses of conventional anticonvulsants for adults. This approach is not favorable as neonates have distinctive physiological characteristics, compared to those of adults. Thus, simply adjusting the dose of the drugs may have sub- or supra-therapeutic effects, or even lead to lethal effects on the patients. The focus of this paper is to explain the electrophysiological cause of benign familial neonatal seizures and the therapeutical attempts that had been done to treat the syndrome.