Internet Administration of the Modified Atkins Diet for Adults With Intractable Epilepsy

August 31, 2015 updated by: Eric Kossoff, Johns Hopkins University
This is a prospective, open-label (no control or blind) study to continue to determine whether the modified Atkins diet reduces seizures, creates ketosis, and is well tolerated in adults (not children) with epilepsy. This study will enroll and manage patients via email, phone, and fax and without dietitian involvement (primary difference from previous studies). It is a 3 month study.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Patients will have contacted either Dr. Kossoff or Dr. Cervenka either via referral or self-referral.

Inclusion: over 18 years of age, at least weekly seizures (or 4 per month), tried at least 2 medications for your seizures, have email and fax access, are not very underweight or have high cholesterol, have not had status epilepticus (seizure lasting over 30 minutes) in the past 6 months, and have not tried the Atkins diet before or the ketogenic diet within the past year. All patients will need to have a local primary care doctor or neurologist willing to be available in case of emergencies. You and your local physician both need to speak and write in English and patients MUST be in the United States to participate. The patient (NOT a caregiver) must be the person to email the investigators - a family member cannot be the contact person.

If the patient agrees, we will send and they will fax back within 2 weeks:

  1. Signed consent
  2. Signed note from their neurologist/primary care provider (attached)
  3. 6 months of medical records to confirm their qualification
  4. 3-day food record (can be emailed by the patient)
  5. Labs (CBC, CMP, fasting lipid profile, urine calcium, urine creatinine, urine hcG (if female) (form attached)

After that, we will send information on how to do the diet via email, they will maintain monthly calendars, and after 3 months we will decide if the diet is helpful. After that time point, they can continue it on their own with periodic followup with either us or their local neurologist.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21287
        • Johns Hopkins Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults aged 18 years or older.
  • Patients must consent for themselves (NOT a family member doing this).
  • Patients need to be willing to perform the induction phase of the diet.
  • Patients must have access to an email account and fax machine.
  • Persisting, countable seizures (> 1 per week or 4 times per month) despite previous treatment with two or more antiepileptic drugs.
  • Patients with coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, atherosclerosis, prior myocardial infarctions, or renal dysfunction will be excluded.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients previously exposed to the Atkins diet (for more than one week) will be excluded.
  • Patients who had tried the ketogenic diet within the past year will be excluded.
  • Patients with non-epileptic seizures (pseudoseizures) will be excluded.
  • Patients that are pregnant or become pregnant during the study will be excluded.
  • Patients must have a local English-speaking neurologist or primary care provider willing to sign a form stating they are available for any emergencies, considering some patients may be a far distance away.
  • Patients must live in the United States.
  • Patients must not have a history of status epilepticus within the past 6 months.
  • Patients with a BMI that is below 18.5 will be excluded.
  • Patients must speak and write in English.
  • Patients must be from the United States.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: diet
Using the high-fat, low carbohydrate modified Atkins diet - 15 grams per day initially. This is a 3-month study of this diet.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Seizure frequency
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Tolerability (ability to create and maintain ketosis), cholesterol, weight
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months
Ability to follow instructions via email (and maintain ketosis and seizure control when achieved).
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months
Ketosis (measured by urine)
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 16, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 16, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

February 19, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 2, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 31, 2015

Last Verified

August 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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