Patient Information

Patients with epilepsy, particularly those with difficult to treat seizures or special issues such as pregnancy and women’s health; memory or mood disorders; or children and adolescents with epilepsy, may be referred to the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center by their primary care physician, a referring neurologist, or by self-referral.

We offer a full complement of advanced diagnostic testing, including evaluation for surgical treatment of epilepsy, as warranted. Approximately half of patients not controlled by medications are candidates for epilepsy surgery that could cure their seizures. The Center's inpatient adult and pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Units (EMUs) combine video and electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring of patients to determine epilepsy type, frequency, and location of seizure onset in the brain. Monitoring results are often supplemented by other diagnostic procedures, including MRI, SPECT, and PET brain imaging, and Wada and neuropsychological testing.