An Overview of Epilepsy Treatments
Accurate diagnosis of the type of
epilepsy a person has is crucial for finding an effective epilepsy treatment.
There are many different types of treatment for epilepsy. Current treatments can control
seizures at least some of the time in about 80 percent of people with epilepsy. However, another 20 percent -- about 600,000 people with epilepsy in the United States -- have intractable seizures, and another 400,000 feel they get inadequate relief from available epilepsy treatments. These statistics make it clear that improved epilepsy treatments are desperately needed.
Once epilepsy is diagnosed, it is important to begin epilepsy treatments as soon as possible. Research suggests that medication and other treatments may be less successful for epilepsy treatment once seizures and their consequences become established.
The goal of epilepsy treatment is to decrease the number and severity of seizures and minimize drug side effects.
Epilepsy Treatments: Medications
Once epilepsy is diagnosed, it is important to begin epilepsy treatments as soon as possible. For about 80 percent of those diagnosed with epilepsy, seizures can be controlled with modern epilepsy medicines and/or surgery.
Epilepsy drugs best treat the symptoms of epilepsy, but they do not cure the disease.
Since 1990, a large number of new antiepileptic drugs have been approved, increasing the treatment options for patients and their doctors. All the epilepsy medications, even the new ones, have some side effects because antiepileptic drugs act directly on the nervous system.
(Click Epilepsy Medication for more detailed information about specific medications for treating epilepsy.)
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