Vitamin D deficiency and effect of treatment on seizure frequency and quality of life parameters in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy: A randomized clinical trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

This study was undertaken to assess the effect of treatment of vitamin D deficiency in drug-resistant epilepsy.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The researchers conducted a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, including patients aged ≥15 years with drug-resistant focal or generalized epilepsy.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, open-label, placebo-controlled and multicenter study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Being open-label, the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study did not mask who received what.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Monitoring included seizure frequency (SF), 25(OH)D, calcium, albumin, creatinine assays, and standardized scales for fatigue, anxiety-depression, and quality of life (Modified Fatigue Impact Scale [M-FIS], Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Quality of Life in Epilepsy [QOLIE-31]) at 3, 6, and 12 months.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Quality of Life, Vitamin D Deficiency, Drug Resistant Epilepsy, Seizures, Vitamin D, Cholecalciferol and Anticonvulsants.

The authors tagged it with the keywords clinical trial, drug resistance, long‐term effect and randomization.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and open-label study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 9 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2024 (Epilepsia), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.