James Sain: Diazepam emergency nasal spray drug trial

James and Michelle Sain of Olive Branch, Miss., enrolled their 15-year-old son, James Jr., into the epilepsy nasal spray drug trial after the Sains had complications administering the emergency rectal gel.

Michelle said it was difficult to give her son the correct dosage rectally and, at times, wasn’t effective at stopping the seizures.

“Sometimes he got nothing from using the gel medication,” Michelle said.

The benefit of the nasal spray is three-fold: it’s easier, more practical and can be as effective as the rectal gel, said Tracee Ridley-Pryor, MSN, RN, CCRC, Le Bonheur Neuroscience Institute’s lead clinical research coordinator.

“It seems more user friendly to administer because of a broader familiarity with intranasal medication,” Ridley-Pryor said. “Because the medication is absorbed through the nasal passage, within a minute, often within seconds, the patient will begin to come out of the seizure.”

When James Jr. had a seizure in December, Michelle administered the emergency nasal Diazepam, which calmed his seizure activity within minutes.