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There are many case reports of seizures apparently associated with the prescription of antipsychotics. This study aimed to examine whether there is an association between the prescription of antipsychotics and incident seizures in individuals with autism spectrum disorder using retrospective data based on patients' chart review. A cohort study was conducted to compare the rate of incident seizure between 3923 users of antipsychotics with 10,086 users of other psychotropics. This was followed by a self-controlled case series (SCCS) analysis of 149 patients to eliminate the effect of time-invariant confounders. The results showed no evidence of increased risk of seizure after exposure to antipsychotic agents (Hazard Ratio 1.28, 95% CI 0.74-2.19) compared to other psychotropics.

Introduction: The seizures in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome are typically resistant to treatment. Seven antiseizure medications (ASMs) in the US (six in the UK/EU) are licensed for the treatment of seizures in LGS: lamotrigine, topiramate, rufinamide, clobazam, felbamate (not licensed in the UK/EU), cannabidiol and fenfluramine. Other options include neurostimulation, corpus callosotomy and dietary therapies, principally the ketogenic diet and its variants. New treatments and therapeutic strategies are needed to improve management of both seizures and cognitive/behavioral comorbidities in LGS. Areas covered: Embase and Medline were searched for articles published between 1 January 2014 and 21 August 2024 reporting efficacy data for pharmacological, neurostimulation, surgical and dietary interventions in individuals with LGS focusing on recent advances. Ongoing and prospective studies were identified from the National Library of Medicine register of clinical trials. Expert opinion: LGS remains a difficult-to-treat epilepsy. Although no major breakthroughs have been reported, several established and novel ASMs, some surgical strategies and other treatment approaches are of benefit or are showing promise. Progress remains incremental but any improvements in the management of this resistant epilepsy syndrome are worthwhile. Plain Language Summary: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is a severe type of epilepsy that begins in early childhood. People with LGS can have many different types of seizure, including 'drop' seizures that may cause the person to fall to the ground resulting in injury. People with LGS often have intellectual disability and behavioral problems. Seizures in LGS are frequently difficult to treat effectively with medication. There is great interest in developing new treatments for seizures in LGS. New medications that work in different ways to previous medications can help reduce the number of seizures in some people with LGS where previous treatments have been inadequate. Two new medications, cannabidiol and fenfluramine, have recently been approved for use in LGS. Other medications are being tested in clinical trials. New types of electrical stimulation devices may be more effective in reducing the number of seizures and may be easier to install and remove. New surgical techniques that can be performed more quickly and may need less recovery time have also been developed. In the future, personalized treatments may be possible that target the specific causes of the seizures in each individual. Research in this area is ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder. In the UK, risperidone is the only psychotropic medication approved for the management of the behavioural symptoms that may accompany autism. This is a population-based study aimed to provide an evaluation of the changing trend in the incidence and prevalence of ASD and to analyse the pattern of psychotropic medication prescribing in the UK. 20,194 patients with ASD were identified. The prevalence increased 3.3-fold from 0.109 per 100 persons in 2009 to 0.355 per 100 persons in 2016. Approximately one-third of the identified cohort was prescribed at least one psychotropic medication. Although the medications approved to manage the symptoms of ASD are limited, the prescribing of such medications is increasing.

The study of federal education initiatives that takes place over multiple years in multiple settings often calls for aggregating and comparing data-in particular, student achievement data-across a broad set of schools, districts, and states. The need to track the trends over time is complicated by the fact that the data from the different schools, districts, and states also may have been based on different achievement tests. This article suggests one approach for defining a common metric: calculating the standardized slope of a time series of datapoints. The standardized slope serves as an effect size statistic. Meta-analytic techniques can be employed because the student achievement test results from different states can therefore be considered equivalent to the findings from different studies.