ReviewCureus2025
Clinical Trials Examining Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Epilepsy: An Analysis of the Current State.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a consideration for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy who are not candidates for surgical resection. However, the landscape of DBS research in epilepsy remains fragmented across targets and study designs. This study aimed to systematically characterize all human DBS trials for epilepsy registered on ClinicalTrials.gov over the past two decades. A cross-sectional registry-based search of ClinicalTrials.gov was conducted in December 2023 using the terms "Epilepsy," "Epilepsies," or "Epileptic" combined with "Deep brain stimulation." Eligible studies involved human participants and evaluated DBS as a therapeutic or diagnostic intervention. Extracted data included country, study type, enrollment, stimulation target, phase, and recruitment status. Descriptive statistics summarized study characteristics and temporal trends. Thirty-one trials met the inclusion criteria from 2003 to 2023. Most studies were interventional (80.6%), small to moderate in size (median enrollment 16), and predominantly conducted in the United States (51.6%). The thalamus was the most common target (45%), especially the anterior nucleus, followed by hippocampal and limbic sites. DBS of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus is currently the only FDA-approved DBS target for epilepsy, whereas all other stimulation sites remain investigational or off-label. Trial initiation increased steadily after 2015, peaking in 2021-2022. Only 25% of studies reported a formal phase designation, and few included pediatric populations. DBS research for epilepsy is expanding globally, with the number of registered DBS trials for epilepsy increasing more than threefold from 2003 to 2023, but research remains limited by small sample sizes and heterogeneous protocols. Thalamic stimulation continues to dominate current investigation, yet emerging targets reflect growing interest in network-level modulation. Standardized, multicenter trials are needed to define optimal targets and long-term efficacy in diverse patient populations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.