Drugs can work very well for many people with epilepsy, which allows them to lead full and normal life. Other, easier to find resources, either because of side effects or simply because it does not work. While many take drugs to be effective, it is a fact that 20-30 percent of people with epilepsy do not respond well to drug therapy. If medication does not prove effective, your doctor may try a higher dose or different medicine or combination of two medicines.
Very rare fight epileptic drugs may lead to more frequent seizures. If this happens your doctor may check the diagnosis. Doctors usually start patients with epilepsy off the lowest dose of anti-epileptic, and then build it to reduce the side effects. What you need depends on various factors such as building and body, to influence how your body processes the medicine and how easy you are to treat epilepsy.
Too high a dose can cause toxicity. Symptoms of poisoning range from drug treatment. If a person gets too much phenytoin, they often become very unstable and may have more frequent seizures. Carbamazepine toxicity usually begins with double vision and drowsi ¬ tion. Another reason why this drug can sometimes seem Seizures will increase if the appropriate type of seizure medication aggravates other types of seizure. Carbamazepine, for example, are effective against tonic-clonic seizures, but not against absence seizures.
There is some confusion about brand vs. generic drugs. Almost all drugs have two names. The first is a common one, even the scientific name of the product that is internationally recognized. Branded drugs name created by individual pharmaceutical companies have produced them. Actual medication is the same, but the problem may occur if you switch from one to another – for example, if you go on Tegretol (brand) with Carbamazepine (generic). This is because sometimes there are small differences in the way drugs are produced. It is best to stick to the type of epilepsy pill are prescribed first, whether branded or generic. Sometimes change may precipitate seizures or side effects. Back man sometimes seizure control may improve or reduce their consequences.
Changing drug treatment
Before treatment was changed on several issues must be considered:
1 is epilepsy? In the misdiagnosis rate is estimated to be between 10 and 25 percent.
2 If it is epilepsy, what type of seizure disorder or syndrome?
Many youth with myoclonic epilepsy (tonic-clonic seizures and myoclonic jerks first thing in the morning) Go undiagnosed, as appropriate leading questions are not asked about myoclonic jerks or early morning tonic-clonic seizures. Specific SYN ¬ Drome responded extremely well to sodium valproate, but carbamaze ¬ pine to create Seizures worse.
3 Are there more appropriate to combat epileptic drugs? All anti-epileptic drugs appeared equally effective (or ineffective!) Confiscation weak, but in primary and symptomatic generalized epilepsy Seizures respond best to sodium valproate, lamotrigine as a second line treatment.
4 provide an adequate drug dose? It is amazing how many people have more than one drug, all drugs in inadequate doses. Results of clinical audit are provided in London suggest that the Seizures can be halved to about one third of the people by reducing the number of drugs in monotherapy and in adequate drug dosage. It is interesting 10% became seizure free as a result of this simple maneuver.
5 you take drugs? If this is a problem that is worth trying to simplify drug therapy to a maximum of twice a day. In midday dose is very easy to forget everything, but gabapentin has a long half-life, to give either once or twice daily.
If you repeat the above fails, then adding a second anti-epileptic drugs are needed, or perhaps the operation as an alternative method of treatment.