Epilepsy affects about 3.4 million people in the U.S., causing recurrent seizures that vary widely in type and severity. About 70% of people gain seizure control with medications, but a third continue having seizures despite trying multiple drugs. Treatment options now include more than 30 anti-seizure medications, brain surgery, nerve stimulation devices, and dietary therapies.
What's actually going on in research
Trials are testing new anti-seizure medications with different mechanisms, including drugs that modulate potassium channels and GABA receptors. Researchers are studying gene therapies for genetic epilepsies like Dravet syndrome and CDKL5 deficiency, brain-responsive neurostimulation devices that detect and stop seizures before they spread, and precision approaches based on specific genetic mutations or seizure origins.
Gene therapy
Several trials are testing gene therapies for rare genetic epilepsies where a single gene defect drives seizures. Early results in Dravet syndrome and other conditions show promise in reducing seizure frequency.
Responsive neurostimulation
Devices implanted in the brain can now detect seizure activity and deliver targeted electrical pulses to stop seizures before they start. Newer systems are being tested for more seizure types and locations.
Precision dosing
Researchers are studying how genetic variants affect how people metabolize anti-seizure drugs. This could help doctors choose the right drug and dose faster, avoiding years of trial and error.
What to know before you search
Eligibility typically depends on seizure frequency, number of medications tried, seizure type, and sometimes genetic testing results or MRI findings showing where seizures start.
What types of trials are currently open
- Drug trials — Testing new anti-seizure medications, often as add-on therapy for people whose seizures aren't controlled. These trials typically track seizure frequency over several months.
- Device trials — Studies of neurostimulation devices, including responsive systems that detect and interrupt seizures, and vagus nerve stimulators that deliver regular pulses to prevent seizures.
- Gene therapy trials — Testing one-time treatments that deliver a working copy of a gene or modify gene expression in people with genetic epilepsies.
- Surgical trials — Comparing different surgical approaches for drug-resistant epilepsy, including laser ablation and traditional resection.
- Biomarker studies — Following people with epilepsy to identify patterns in EEG, imaging, or blood tests that predict treatment response or seizure risk.
Recently added Epilepsy trials
Try a brain-computer training program to improve thinking skills
The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether a Brain-Computer Interface Neurofeedback Training (BCI-NFT) programme can improve cognitive outcomes, and whether electroencephalography (EEG)-based measures can serve as objective markers of cognitive impairment, in children and adolescents aged 7 to 21 years with acquired brain injury (ABI), including traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, encephalitis, brain tumour, or epilepsy. A group of children and adolescents aged 7 to 21 years without any history of brain injury or epilepsy will also be enrolled to provide normative EEG data for comparison. The main questions the study aims to answer are: 1. Can EEG-derived measures of sustained attention, relaxation, and selective attention detect and quantify cognitive impairment in children and adolescents following ABI? 2. Does a structured BCI-NFT programme improve cognitive and behavioural outcomes, including attention, memory, and executive function, compared with standard care alone? Researchers will compare an Intervention Group, who will receive BCI-NFT in addition to standard cognitive rehabilitation, with a Waitlist-Control Group, who will initially receive standard care alone before subsequently crossing over to receive BCI-NFT. This design will allow researchers to determine whether BCI-NFT leads to greater improvements in cognitive and behavioural outcomes compared with standard care alone. Participants in the main ABI cohort will: * Complete behavioural assessments using the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition (BASC-3), including parent and/or teacher reports. * Complete 12 BCI-NFT sessions over a 10-week period. Each session will last approximately 60 minutes. During each session, participants will wear a wireless EEG headset and interact with neurofeedback computer games designed to respond to their sustained attention, selective attention, and response time. * Repeat the BASC-3 behavioural assessments at the end of the study period. * Have undergone a recent neuropsychological assessment within the preceding 2 years and ongoing review by a neuropsychologist. Participants in the normative EEG cohort, comprising children and adolescents without a history of brain injury or epilepsy, will attend a single study session. During this session, EEG activity will be recorded both at rest and while participants interact with a three-dimensional (3D) computer game. These recordings will provide normative EEG data against which findings from participants with ABI can be compared.
Track how a seizure medication works for you over time
This prospective multicenter observational study will evaluate the effectiveness, safety, tolerability, and impact on quality of life of eslicarbazepine in adults with focal-onset seizures in routine clinical practice. Participants will include newly diagnosed patients and patients previously treated with carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine who have inadequate seizure control or intolerable adverse effects. Treatment with eslicarbazepine will be initiated or changed at the discretion of the treating physician in accordance with routine clinical practice. Participants will be followed for 3 months.
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