Genetic Approaches to Comorbidities in Epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome: Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc, FRCPC

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

“When you talk about comorbidities in epilepsy, there are several types, for instance, depression, anxiety, headaches, sleep problems, but then there are things like autism, intellectual disability. Some of these comorbidities are caused by an interaction of some genetic background, but environment as well.”

Genetics may be applied to epilepsy surgery and treating comorbidities based on the new developments; although, the approach is not completely understood well yet. Newer antiseizure medications can treat patients with refractory epilepsy whereas patients with multifocal epilepsy need a more effective approach that may go beyond medications or surgery.

Danielle Andrade, MD, MSc, FRCPC, gave a talk on genetic approaches to comorbidities in epilepsy during a symposium at the 2022 American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, held December 2 to 6, in Nashville, Tennessee.¹ The session mostly covered the shortfalls that are present with genetic approaches for epilepsy and the goal of minimizing adverse events in treatment. Her talk focused on comorbidities that have more of a genetic basis background with epilepsy and gave examples such as Dravet syndrome, as it is serves in childhood onset epilepsy.

Andrade, professor of neurology at the University of Toronto, sat down with NeurologyLive^® for an interview and provided an overview of the topics that were covered in the symposium. She explained the different types of comorbidities that occur in patients with epilepsy and gave examples of studies that centered on a genetic therapy approach for comorbidities in epilepsy.

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REFERENCES
1. Andrade D. Genetic Approaches to Comorbidities. Presented at: AES Annual Meeting; December 2-6, 2022; Nashville, TN, and virtual. Epilepsy Therapies Symposium.