Epilepsy Foundation’s Human Epilepsy Project: Resistant Focal Seizures Study

In 2018 the Epilepsy Foundation launched a partnership with the Human Epilepsy Project, in collaboration with the Epilepsy Study Consortium, for a new study for people with epilepsy. Human Epilepsy Project 2: Resistant Focal Seizures (HEP2) is designed to better understand the challenges of living with focal seizures that do not respond to medication. It also aims to determine biomarkers of epilepsy severity and treatment response.

What is the HEP2 Study?

• The study is for people who have focal seizures that happen at least 2 times per month.
• Participants must be between 16-65 years old.
• The HEP2 study will follow 200 people with treatment-resistant focal epilepsy over a two-year period.
• The study will measure:
  • Changes in seizure frequency
  • Treatments used
  • Side effects
  • Presence of comorbidities such as depression and anxiety
  • Healthcare costs
  • Quality of life.

Who can participate?

Participants with focal epilepsy with 2 or more seizures a month can join the HEP2 study at any one of the recruiting study epilepsy centers. These centers were selected because of their track record of conducting high-quality research in epilepsy and efficiently recruiting participants into studies.

The current sites for the HEP2 study are located in:

• Florida
• New York
• Tennessee
• Connecticut
• Minnesota
• Pennsylvania
• California
• Idaho

Study participants will be asked to track their seizures, symptoms and medications using My Seizure Diary, a self-management web tool developed by the Epilepsy Foundation specifically for seizures and epilepsy. In addition, participants will need to share their medical records with the research investigators and travel to the clinical site two or three times over the course of the study for health visits and blood samples.

Take Action

• Join the Human Epilepsy Project today!
• Call 1-800-332-1000, email [email protected] or visit www.HEPStudy.org to learn more.
• Help people living with epilepsy!