ADVERTISEMENT
Modified Atkins Diet Plus Medication Reduces Seizures in Drug-Resistant Epilepsy
Combining a modified Atkins diet with medication reduced seizures and improved quality of life in adolescents and adults with drug-resistant epilepsy, according to findings from a randomized controlled trial published online ahead of print in Neurology.
“For people with drug-resistant epilepsy, or those who have been unable to find effective treatment to reduce seizures, it’s encouraging to see that there are lifestyle changes that can be combined with standard drug therapy to reduce the number of seizures,” said study author Manjari Tripathi, MD, DM, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. “Our study found that this combination may reduce the chance of seizures by more than half.”
The study included 160 patients ages 10 through 55 who had epilepsy for more than 10 years on average and had at least 27 seizures per month despite using an average four antiseizure medications at their maximum tolerated dose. Participants were randomly assigned to standard drug therapy alone or to drugs plus the modified Atkins diet for 6 months.
>>News: Bidirectional, Long-term Relationship Found Between Epilepsy and Depression
The modified Atkins diet is a combination of the Atkins diet and a ketogenic diet that includes food items such as soy products, heavy cream, butter and oils, leafy green vegetables, and animal protein. The ketogenic diet has been shown to reduce seizures but can be difficult to follow because of stringent requirements and restrictions. Under the modified Atkins diet, carbohydrates were restricted to 20 grams per day.
After 6 months, 26.2% of patients who followed the modified Atkins diet combined with standard drug therapy had a more than 50% reduction in seizures, the primary outcome of the study, compared with only 2.5% of patients assigned drug therapy alone, the research team reported. Additionally, four participants assigned the add-on modified Atkins diet were seizure-free by study’s end compared with no participants in the control group.
Patients who followed the diet also showed greater improvements in quality of life, behavior, and side effects compared with those who only took medication, the study found.
A third of the participants dropped out of the study due to poor tolerance of the diet, lack of benefit, or inability to follow-up due to COVID-19 or other reasons, Dr Tripathi pointed out. Nevertheless, participants were better able to tolerate modified Atkins diet than what is seen with the ketogenic diet, the researcher observed.
“While the modified Atkins diet may be an effective treatment in controlling seizures, further research is needed to identify genetic biomarkers and other factors associated with the response to this diet,” Dr Tripathi said. “This may improve patient care by encouraging targeted, precision-based earlier use of this diet.”
References
