Researchers find a way to reduce the side effects of deep brain stimulation

A team led by Dr. Wayne Goodman, D.C. and Irene Ellwood Chair of Psychiatry and professor at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Sameer Sheth, director of the Cain Foundation Labs in the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor at Baylor, found a way to reduce potential side effects associated with deep brain stimulation. 

Texas Children’s and Baylor College researchers use innovative dual-target deep brain stimulation approach to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette Syndrome

Dr. Sameer Sheth, Dr. Wayne Goodman, Dr. Steven Bellows, and their colleagues at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, have recently demonstrated favorable outcomes using a new DBS approach that targets two distinct brain regions to simultaneously treat OCD and TS. 

Imaging brain connections can predict improvements in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients after deep brain stimulation

A first-of-its-kind collaborative study led by researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital has found that mapping neural connections in the brains of OCD patients offers key insights that explain the observed improvements in their clinical outcomes after DBS. The study was published in Biological Psychiatry.

The clinical presentation of IDDMSSD syndrome is likely associated with the molecular location of the mutation in the PAK1 gene

A recent study from Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine has expanded the clinical spectrum of a new epileptic disorder called Intellectual Developmental Disorder with Macrocephaly, Seizures, and Speech Delay (IDDMSSD) with the identification of the first recurrently affected residue identified in the protein kinase domain of PAK1 protein.

The therapeutic window for Angelman syndrome patients may be broader than previously reported

Researchers at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine have found that a gene therapy approach can effectively reverse key symptoms of this disorder in adult and juvenile rodent models, which demonstrates that the therapeutic age window for Angelman syndrome is much broader than reported previously and offers a new ray of hope for patients and their families impacted by this devastating disorder.

FDA approves everolimus for tuberous sclerosis-associated seizures, a treatment first discovered at Texas Children's Hospital

On April 10, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved everolimus tablets for oral suspension (brand name: Afinitor Dispersz, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation) as an adjunctive therapy to treat partial-onset refractory seizures in adults and children over 2 years of age with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC). Tuberous Sclerois isa genetic disorder that affects one million people worldwide and is characterized by benign tumors in several organs, epilepsy, behavioral problems and intellectual disability.