Luisa Lilia Rocha Arrieta

Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is a condition in which there is persistence of seizures after “adequate trials of two tolerated and appropriately chosen and used Anti-Seizure-Medications (ASM) schedules” according to the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). This condition presents a high prevalence (about 30%) in patients with epilepsy, in spite of the different ASM used. At present, several hypotheses try to explain the drug-resistance condition in epilepsy. However, no single hypothesis can explain all cases of DRE. In addition, these hypotheses do not consider clinical conditions such as the age and gender of the patients and the high prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders associated with DRE.

This presentation will focus to discuss the relevance to consider different clinical factors in experimental models of DRE, including epigenetic and side-effects induced by ASM that may facilitate the drug-resistant condition. Other important issue is the relevance to evaluate new therapeutic strategies in the brain tissue obtained from patients with DRE and submitted to epilepsy surgery. These actions will facilitate the identification of new ASM to control DRE.