Author information from the last article
E-post: karln@ous-hf.no
Karl Otto Nakken er dr.med. og pensjonert spesialist i nevrologi. Han var i mange år medisinsk ansvarlig ved Spesialsykehuset for epilepsi.
Articles by Karl Otto Nakken
A life without a past
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Mia Tuft
19.01.2026:
Henry Molaison was the patient who, without knowing it, provided crucial insights into epilepsy surgery and memory functions. He lived a life without the ability to form new memories. In 1953, Henry Molaison underwent surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy. The surgeon removed the medial parts of the...
Is it possible to sneeze your way out of epilepsy?
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Mia Tuft
03.10.2025:
Christian Munch, Edvard Munch's father, was a military doctor in Christiania (old name for Oslo) in the 19th century and was interested in new treatment methods. In an 1866 article in Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben, he wrote about the use of sneezing powder as a treatment for epilepsy and how...
A hundred years of EEG
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Rune Markhus,
- Oliver Henning
24.03.2025:
The year 2024 marked the centennial of the first registration of human cerebral activity by the German psychiatrist Hans Berger. He called the method 'electroencephalography', abbreviated as EEG. Today, EEG plays a key role in the assessment of epilepsy, including assessment for epilepsy surgery...
Post-stroke epilepsy
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Morten I. Lossius,
- Erik Sætre,
- Gernot Hlauschek,
- Anette Huuse Farmen
08.08.2024:
Epilepsy as a result of stroke is currently the most rapidly increasing form of epilepsy. The risk of post-stroke epileptogenesis is higher after haemorrhagic stroke than after ischemic stroke. We provide here a brief clinical review of the topic to highlight the misinterpretation and undertreatment...
The fair-haired giant
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Torleiv Svendsen,
- Erlend Hem
27.06.2022:
The much-loved fictional character of Jonas Fjeld is a heroic surgeon. But who was he modelled on? It may have been Dr. Tandberg at Lillehammer. In the period between 1911 and 1935, Øvre Richter Frich (1872–1945) wrote twenty-one books about a fictional surgeon and general super-hero, Jonas Fjeld,...
From hysteroepilepsy to non-epileptic seizure
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Antonia Villagran
08.03.2021:
Seizures that resemble epileptic seizures but are not related to epilepsy, should be called non-epileptic seizures, even though the expression is not completely precise. There are many kinds of seizures that greatly resemble epileptic seizures but that are not related to epilepsy. The most common...
Are the new anti-epileptic drugs any better than their predecessors?
- Karl Otto Nakken,
- Eylert Brodtkorb
23.11.2020:
Since 1993, fifteen new anti-epileptic drugs have entered the market. But while the potential for personalised treatment has never been greater, the proportion of patients achieving seizure freedom is no higher than it was before. Prior to 1993, the treatment of epilepsy was largely dominated by...
Discontinuation of antiepileptic drugs in seizure-free patients – when and how?
- Morten I. Lossius,
- Kristin Å. Alfstad,
- Kari M. Aaberg,
- Karl Otto Nakken
21.03.2017:
In seizure-free patients with epilepsy, the question of whether, and if so when, it is acceptable to discontinue treatment may be difficult to answer. A thorough risk-benefit assessment should be undertaken with the patient and next of kin, during which the consequences of a relapse must be weighed...