For how we live.
A meta-analysis of 86 population-based studies estimated that about 236 infants per 100,000 live births develop epilepsy in the first two years, with developmental encephalopathies the largest share.
A 31-patient cohort found the epilepsy drug stopped refractory status epilepticus in most cases, and a matched comparison put resolution above controls — but this is retrospective, low-tier evidence, not a trial.
In a 300-patient Chinese trial, endovascular therapy left far more people with mild large-vessel stroke free of meaningful disability at 90 days than medication alone, but serious procedural complications were common.
LATE-MT randomly assigned 336 patients with salvageable brain tissue to thrombectomy or standard care 24 to 72 hours after a large-vessel stroke. Clot removal cut disability at 90 days but raised brain bleeds and death.
In 107 Australian adults, a five-session internet course reduced monthly functional seizures versus usual care — and, oddly, the self-guided version outperformed the therapist-guided one.
Two identical phase 3 trials found the BTK inhibitor lowered the annual relapse rate versus teriflunomide — a real win on one endpoint, against a modest comparator, with disability data still to come.
In 108 people with Parkinson's, diffusion MRI found that damage to cholinergic pathways running from a deep-brain nucleus tracked worse cognition — and was most marked in those with dementia.
Among 287 people with REM sleep behaviour disorder followed about four years, 15.7% developed a synucleinopathy. Higher coffee intake was linked to a lower risk of progression.
A Quezon City hospital reviewed 20 children admitted with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis over 16 years. A quarter arrived in 2022, and the timing points back to the 2018–2019 measles outbreak.
The FDA logged the recall of the RED 62 reperfusion catheter, part of the Penumbra System used to pull clots from the brain, on 7 October. Manufacturing problems mean the device may fracture; 43 units are affected.
Among 7,579 pregnancies in people with migraine, anti-CGRP antibody use early in pregnancy carried a 42% higher adjusted risk of spontaneous abortion; propranolol showed no increase. The data are observational.
In the MONEAD cohort, six-year-olds whose mothers breastfed while taking antiseizure medicines scored no worse on language or adaptive behaviour — and longer breastfeeding tracked with slightly better scores.
AbbVie's once-daily pill cleared the FDA on 25 September as a new molecular entity. Across three phase 3 TEMPO trials it beat placebo in early Parkinson's and as an add-on to levodopa.
ROAM/EORTC-1308, an independent phase 3 trial, randomised 157 patients after complete brain-tumour removal; adjuvant radiotherapy improved five-year disease-free survival, but the benefit's confidence interval was wide.
A single-centre, placebo-controlled trial found targeted onabotulinumtoxinA injections cut dystonia-related foot pain without harming movement. The effect was large, but the trial randomised only 33 people.
The oral histone deacetylase inhibitor cleared the FDA in March 2024. In the phase 3 EPIDYS trial, boys on givinostat still lost function over 72 weeks — just less of it than those on placebo.
Emcitate cleared the FDA on 28 September as a new molecular entity. In an open-label trial of 45 patients, the drug lowered the high serum T3 that drives MCT8 deficiency by about two-thirds.
A European registry compared 52 transplanted patients with 79 untreated ones over up to 25 years. The benefit was clearest when transplant came before symptoms, and it did not stop progression entirely.
A Spanish registry followed 166 patients with treatment-resistant epileptic encephalopathies for a year. Median seizure frequency fell 68.8%, though the design cannot match a placebo-controlled trial.
In the industry-funded trial, young responders who kept taking the dopamine D1 blocker relapsed less than those tapered to placebo. The effect was clear in children but not in the small adult group.
The Scholar Rock antibody cleared the FDA on 11 September. In the phase 3 SAPPHIRE trial, apitegromab plus standard therapy beat placebo by 1.8 points on a motor-function scale at 12 months.
In the phase 3 TenCRAOS trial, intravenous tenecteplase given within 4.5 hours did no better than aspirin at recovering sight, and carried more bleeding — including one fatal brain haemorrhage.
Ceperognastat, an oral OGA inhibitor, showed no benefit on the primary cognitive endpoint at 100 weeks. The higher dose progressed 32% faster than placebo and had more serious adverse events.
In a single-arm trial, children with vanishing white matter given guanabenz kept walking longer than matched historical controls. The design was uncontrolled and hallucinations were common early on.
A fine tremor everyone has — worsened by caffeine, stress, tiredness or some drugs — is the usual cause. Essential tremor is the commonest tremor disorder; a shake at rest is the one that points elsewhere.
A limb that has "gone to sleep" is brief pressure on a nerve and clears in minutes. Tingling that is persistent or spreading can mean carpal tunnel, diabetes or low B12; sudden one-sided numbness is an emergency.
A brief swim of light-headedness on standing is usually orthostatic hypotension: a fall in blood pressure as gravity pulls blood to the legs. It is common, rises with age, and often traces to dehydration or medication.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is median-nerve compression at the wrist. Cochrane reviews find steroid injections clearly help for about a month, while surgery beats non-surgical care at three and six months.
About a quarter of people sneeze on stepping into bright light. It runs in families, has been tied to specific gene variants, and looks like visual signals spilling into the sneeze circuit.
In the CREST-2 trials, stenting or surgery added to intensive medical treatment left cognition no better at four years than medical treatment alone in people with severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis.
When brief vertigo is triggered by rolling over or looking up, it is usually a loose crystal in the inner ear. A Cochrane review found a repositioning manoeuvre resolved it in 56% versus 21%.
In HIMALAYA, 305 people with ALS took the RIPK1 inhibitor SAR443820 or placebo; function fell almost identically in both, and the sponsor is halting the drug in ALS.
Wrist and body sensors detect roughly 9 in 10 tonic-clonic seizures. A 192-patient validation against video-EEG found the harder focal seizures still slip past, or bury the alarm in false alerts.
Implanted electrodes now decode attempted speech into text for people who cannot speak. Results are striking — up to 62 words a minute — but come from single participants, need brain surgery, and remain research.
The familiar explanation — dehydration and lost salts — is the weakest part of the evidence. The better-supported idea is that cramping is a failure of nerve control, which is why a mouthful of pickle juice can stop one.
In the LAIS trial, more patients given intravenous loberamisal recovered with little or no disability at 90 days — a rare positive result in a field littered with failed neuroprotectants.
A 614-donor autopsy study tied advanced CTE to dementia independently of other brain disease. A separate imaging report in three former athletes hints at a test for the living. The caveats on both are heavy.
A once-daily experimental pill beat placebo in a phase 3 trial and is under regulatory review — yet no study has tested its claimed edge over older dopamine agonists head-to-head.
A randomised-withdrawal trial showed the antibody-lowering drug kept CIDP patients in remission. A 2026 extension reports lasting benefit, but with no placebo group to measure it against.
In the head-to-head OVERLORD-MS trial, 92.2% on rituximab and 94.8% on ocrelizumab had no new MRI lesions from months 6 to 24, meeting the prespecified bar for noninferiority.
In ATTRACTION, tirofiban given after successful thrombectomy left more stroke patients independent at 90 days than placebo, though symptomatic brain bleeds trended higher and were not significantly different.
The anti-alpha-synuclein antibody did not significantly delay motor progression in the phase 2b PADOVA study, though a non-significant trend and secondary signals keep a phase 3 trial alive.
The CHMP backed tolebrutinib for non-relapsing secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, a population with no prior disability-targeting treatment. The trial showed a 31% delay in progression.
Cemdisiran, a gene-silencing drug given under the skin once every three months, cut daily-living scores more than placebo in antibody-positive generalised myasthenia gravis, a rare complement-driven disease.
In 99 patients with normal-pressure hydrocephalus, an open shunt valve improved gait velocity and balance versus a valve set so high it did nothing. Cognition and bladder control did not improve.