↓ Skip to main content

Ketogenic diet and other dietary treatments for epilepsy

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, February 2016
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
21 news outlets
blogs
6 blogs
twitter
59 X users
facebook
13 Facebook pages
wikipedia
9 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

dimensions_citation
225 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
505 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Ketogenic diet and other dietary treatments for epilepsy
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, February 2016
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd001903.pub3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kirsty Martin, Cerian F Jackson, Robert G Levy, Paul N Cooper

Abstract

The ketogenic diet (KD), being high in fat and low in carbohydrates, has been suggested to reduce seizure frequency. It is currently used mainly for children who continue to have seizures despite treatment with antiepileptic drugs. Recently, there has been interest in less restrictive KDs including the modified Atkins diet (MAD) and the use of these diets has extended into adult practice. To review the evidence for efficacy and tolerability from randomised controlled trials regarding the effects of KD and similar diets. We searched the Cochrane Epilepsy Group's Specialized Register (30 March 2015), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) via the Cochrane Register of Studies Online (CRSO, 30 March 2015), MEDLINE (Ovid, 30 March 2015), ClinicalTrials.gov (30 March 2015) and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP, 30 March 2015). We imposed no language restrictions. We checked the reference lists of retrieved studies for additional reports of relevant studies. Studies of KDs and similar diets for people with epilepsy. Two review authors independently applied pre-defined criteria to extract data and assessed study quality. We identified seven randomised controlled trials that generated eight publications.All trials applied an intention-to-treat analysis with varied randomisation methods. The seven studies recruited 427 children and adolescents and no adults. We could not conduct a meta-analysis due to the heterogeneity of the studies.Reported rates of seizure freedom reached as high as 55% in a 4 : 1 KD group after three months and reported rates of seizure reduction reached as high as 85% in a 4 : 1 KD group after three months.One trial found no significant difference between the fasting-onset and gradual-onset KD for rates of seizure freedom and reported a greater rate of seizure reduction in the gradual-onset KD group.Studies assessing the efficacy of the MAD reported seizure freedom rates of up to 10% and seizure reduction rates of up to 60%. One study compared the MAD to a 4 : 1 KD, but did not report rates of seizure freedom or seizure reduction.Adverse effects were fairly consistent across different dietary interventions. The most commonly reported adverse effects were gastrointestinal syndromes. It was common that adverse effects were the reason for participants dropping out of trials. Other reasons for drop-out included lack of efficacy and non-acceptance of the diet.Although there was some evidence for greater antiepileptic efficacy for a 4 : 1 KD over lower ratios, the 4 : 1 KD was consistently associated with more adverse effects.No studies assessed the effect of dietary interventions on quality of life, or cognitive or behavioural functioning. The randomised controlled trials discussed in this review show promising results for the use of KDs in epilepsy. However, the limited number of studies, small sample sizes and a sole paediatric population resulted in a poor overall quality of evidence.There were adverse effects within all of the studies and for all KD variations, such as short-term gastrointestinal-related disturbances, to longer-term cardiovascular complications. Attrition rates remained a problem with all KDs and across all studies, reasons for this being lack of observed efficacy and dietary tolerance.There was a lack of evidence to support the clinical use of KD in adults with epilepsy, therefore, further research would be of benefit.Other more palatable but related diets, such as the MAD ketogenic diet, may have a similar effect on seizure control as classical KD but this assumption requires more investigation. For people who have medically intractable epilepsy or people who are not suitable for surgical intervention, a KD remains a valid option; however, further research is required.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 59 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 505 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
New Zealand 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 502 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 91 18%
Student > Bachelor 80 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 47 9%
Other 40 8%
Student > Postgraduate 32 6%
Other 76 15%
Unknown 139 28%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 133 26%
Nursing and Health Professions 60 12%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 38 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 32 6%
Neuroscience 23 5%
Other 63 12%
Unknown 156 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 241. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 August 2023.
All research outputs
#156,411
of 25,457,297 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#275
of 11,499 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,761
of 410,074 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#4
of 220 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,297 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,499 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 410,074 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 220 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.