Temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampus sclerosis: prevalence, etiology, and treatment options with herbal medicines

Abstract

Background and objectives: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which the patient suffers with two or more unprovoked seizures. It is one of the most common neurological disorders worldwide, affecting more than 70 million people. Currently various modes of effective treatments are available, but still there are many cases that remain drug resistant. Hence, there is a need to explore herbal medications for the treatment of drug resistant epilepsy. Methods: Recent reviews and research articles (2000-2022) from PubMed and Google Scholar have been explored. Review: Based on etiology, there are six categories of epilepsy: Genetic, structural, metabolic, immune, infectious, and unknown epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampus sclerosis (TLE-HS) is one of the most common forms of structural epilepsy. Even though several new anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have been discovered, but the treatment of some cases especially TLE-HS remains resistant to them. Surgery is one of the most effective options for TLE-HS; however, this usually results in memory deficits, and occasionally, intracranial hematoma, delayed hydrocephalus, subdural empyema, and visual field defects in patients. Conclusion: Hence, to overcome drug resistance, new pharmacological and herbal therapies are required. Animal trials are first step in the development of new drugs, to study toxicity and efficacy of proposed drugs. Many herbs have anticonvulsant activity but remain an under-explored treatment option for epilepsy. Further research on herbal extracts as a possible treatment for epilepsy needs to be conducted.