You cannot stop a seizure, but you can help the patient prevent serious injury.
Remain calm, and do not panic, then take the following actions:
Do not leave the seizure victim alone. Anyone nearby should call 911. Patients should be taken to an emergency room when:
Not all patients with chronic epilepsy need to go to the hospital after a seizure. Hospitalization may not be necessary in many patients whose seizure is not severe or repetitive, and who have no risk factors for complications. All patients or caregivers, however, should contact their doctor after a seizure occurs.
Most children who have a febrile seizure do not have a seizure disorder and generally do not require drug treatment to preventive more seizures. In very rare cases, children experience severe fever-related seizures known as complex febrile convulsions. In such cases, there is a risk for brain injury that may lead to temporal lobe epilepsy, but this is very small. Such seizures last over 15 minutes, occur more than once within 24 hours, and may affect only one side of the body.
Treatment with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) is usually initiated or strongly considered for the following patients:
There is some debate about whether to treat every adult patient with an AED after a single initial seizure. Some doctors do not recommend treating adult patients after a single seizure if they have a normal neurologic examination, EEG, and imaging studies.
Most epileptic seizures can be controlled using a single-drug regimen. First-line AED drugs include phenytoin (Dilantin), carbamazepine (Tegretol, Carbatrol), and divalproex sodium (Depakote). Patients generally begin with low doses and build up until the seizures are controlled or a toxic reaction occurs. If a single drug fails to control seizures, other drugs are added on. The specific drugs and whether more than one should be used are determined by various factors, including the patient's age and the seizure's type, frequency, and cause.
Drugs fail to control epilepsy in about 30% of patients. For patients who have little or no benefit from their initial drug regimen the likelihood of good or complete control from different medications or multidrug regimens is not very high.
Reasons for Failure. An AED may fail to reduce seizures due to such factors as:
The doctor should first address these issues. If the patient still does not respond, the doctor will usually try a different drug. If this fails, one or even two additional drugs at a time may be used. When seizures do not respond to the first two or three drugs, the odds of a fourth or fifth working diminish greatly, despite a number of new medications on the market. In such cases, the patient should ask about surgical alternatives.
Healthy Behaviors. In young people, a positive attitude, continued support from family and health care providers, emotional well-being, and good treatment results can increase patient compliance. Unhealthful behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol use, can have a negative effect.
During the first few months of therapy, the doctor will probably order blood tests once or twice to monitor drug levels and, if necessary, adjust dosages. Monitoring is used to check for AED complications, and to be sure the patient is complying with the regimen. These blood tests may be, however, a less reliable indicator of problems than the patient's own self-observations of his or her responses to the drug. For instance, blood tests may suggest that the dosage levels are insufficient according to general standards, yet the individual patient may be seizure-free and leading a normal life. It is very important that women have AED levels monitored during pregnancy.
Over half of all patients treated effectively can stop taking AEDs within 5 - 10 years. Evidence suggests that medications in children should not be halted for at least 2 years after the last seizure, particularly if they have partial seizures and abnormal EEGs. It is not clear whether children who have been free of generalized seizures need to wait more than 2 years or if they can withdraw earlier.
Children who tend to relapse after withdrawal from treatment usually have the following conditions or situations:
There is also no clear evidence on whether adults who are free of any seizure type can safely withdraw from their medications within 2 years of their last seizure of if they should wait.
In any case, attempts to halt drugs should be done during periods when seizures will cause the least harm. For instance, the best time to test the effects of drug withdrawal in teenagers might be about a year before they are eligible to drive.
Anti-epileptic drugs interact with many other drugs, and may cause special problems in older patients who use multiple medications for other health problems. Elderly patients should have liver and kidney function tests performed before starting antiseizure medication. Standard drugs are usually effective, while newer ones (including gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, and gamma-vinyl-GABA) may sometimes prove to be useful as a sole therapy. These newer drugs also increase patient compliance because they tend to have fewer side effects than the older ones.
Hormonal fluctuations affect epilepsy in about a third to a half of female patients. Estrogen appears to increase activity, and progesterone reduces it. The effect of pregnancy on women with epilepsy is complex. The following treatments may help or affect women with epilepsy:
(For more information, see the Prognosis section of this report.)
Christensen J, Vestergaard M, Mortensen PB, Sidenius P, Agerbo E. Epilepsy and risk of suicide: a population-based case-control study. Lancet Neurol. 2007 Aug;6(8):693-8.
Foldvary-Schaefer N, Wyllie E. Epilepsy. In: Goetz C, ed. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier. 2007:chap 52.
Freeman JM, Kossoff EH, Hartman AL. The ketogenic diet: one decade later. Pediatrics. 2007 Mar;119(3):535-43.
French JA, Pedley TA. Clinical practice. Initial management of epilepsy. N Engl J Med. 2008 Jul 10;359(2):166-76.
Hemming K, Maguire MJ, Hutton JL, Marson AG. Vigabatrin for refractory partial epilepsy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Jul 16;(3):CD007302.
Jette N, Hemming K, Hutton JL, Marson AG. Topiramate add-on for drug-resistant partial epilepsy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Jul 16;(3):CD001417.
Johnson MV. Seizures in childhood. In: Kliegman RM, Behrman RE, Jenson HB, Stanton BF, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 586.
Krebs PP. Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Am J Electroneurodiagnostic Technol. 2007 Mar;47(1):20-8.
Krumholz A, Wiebe S, Gronseth G, et al. Practice Parameter: evaluating an apparent unprovoked first seizure in adults (an evidence-based review): report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society. Neurology. 2007 Nov 20;69(21):1996-2007.
Kwan P, Brodie MJ. Emerging drugs for epilepsy. Expert Opin Emerg Drugs. 2007 Sep;12(3):407-22.
Leone MA, Solari A, Beghi E; FIRST Group. Treatment of the first tonic-clonic seizure does not affect long-term remission of epilepsy. Neurology. 2006 Dec 26;67(12):2227-9.
Salanova V, Worth R. Neurostimulators in epilepsy. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2007 Jul;7(4):315-9.
Spencer SS. Seizures and epilepsy. In: Goldman L, ed. Cecil Medicine. 23rd edition. Saunders. 2007.
Tomson T, Hiilesmaa V. Epilepsy in pregnancy. BMJ. 2007 Oct 13;335(7623):769-73.