Prescribing a course of karate lessons probably isn't the most obvious way of treating epilepsy, but that's just what researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, have recently investigated.

Dr Kerry Conant and colleagues were interested in whether a course of martial arts lessons could alleviate some of the psychological effects of seizures, rather than the seizures themselves. Having seizures can have drastic effects on a person's self-confidence and personal identity. This is especially true of children and adolescents, and can seriously affect their performance at school, with lifelong consequences.

Fifteen children and teenagers aged between eight and sixteen followed a 10-week karate programme together. They had a range of types of seizures, including complex partial, tonic-clonic and absence seizures. Nine of them completed a series of questionnaires designed to gauge their quality of life and levels of self-confidence before and after the karate classes. Each child's parents also completed questionnaires, one about how their child was responding to the programme, and another to gauge their own levels of anxiety.

The results of the study were published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior in October. None of the children had a change in frequency of seizures during the study. The parents reported significant improvements in their children's memory and also improved general quality of life, including their ability to concentrate. The children themselves reported increased self-esteem, and especially rated their ability and popularity in school more highly than before. They also felt they had more confidence dealing with other people. Levels of parents' stress also decreased to an extent.

Karate training emphasises self-discipline and self-control. The researchers theorised that the lessons helped these children by giving them something in their lives to have control over, and teaching them effective coping strategies. Since all the children in the study went to the same lessons, peer admiration will also have reinforced these encouraging messages.

This is a tiny pilot study, so it's difficult to say anything about how many children with epilepsy might benefit from treatment in this way. Ten weeks of lessons is also a relatively short intervention, and a longer programme might have better results. This is nevertheless an interesting demonstration that a simple measure can have important positive effects. It also emphasises the importance of treating the whole patient with epilepsy (and their family) not just their seizures.