Epilepsy goals

Establish therapeutic goals for pharmacotherapy in a patient with epilepsy. 

The ultimate outcome goal for any patient with epilepsy is elimination of all seizures without any adverse effects of the treatment. An effective treatment plan would allow the patient to pursue a normal lifestyle with complete control of seizures. Specifically, the treatment should enable the patient to drive, perform well in school, hold a reasonable job, and function effectively in the family and community. However, due to the intractability of the seizures or sensitivity to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), many patients are not able to achieve these outcomes. In these cases, the goal of therapy is to provide a tolerable balance between reduced seizure severity and/or frequency and medication adverse effects that optimizes the individual s ability to have a lifestyle as nearly normal as possible. 

The goals of treatment are (1) terminate clinical and electrical seizure activity, (2) minimize side effects, (3) prevent recurrent seizures, and (4) avoid pharmacoresistent epilepsy and/or neurologic sequelae. 

By 1912, von Mering and Fischer developed and commercially introduced a new barbiturate compound for sleep and anxiety called phenobarbital or Luminal. However, this medication quickly found its place as treatment for a very different medical condition, epilepsy, which is a condition of periodic, unprovoked convulsions or seizures. The main goal of epilepsy treatment is to decrease the frequency of seizures. Alfred Hauptmann discovered the anti-epileptic properties of phenobarbital accidentally. A 1912 report by Hauptmann described epileptic patients who were given phenobarbital for sedation and incidentally had fewer seizures. Seizures are caused by an abnormal impulse in the brain, which spreads and sends inappropriate message to the body. These messages result in... 

This mutant line will be a useful model for testing the effectiveness of pharmacological intervention in preventing cell loss, an important goal of epilepsy treatment in human patients. Since other Na" " channels are also expressed in hippocampal neurons, it seems likely that delayed inactivation of SCN1A, SCN3A or SCN8A could also result in seizures. 

Walker M, Sander J. The impact of new antiepileptic drugs on the prognosis of epilepsy seizure freedom should be the ultimate goal. Neui ology 1996 46 912-914. 

The ultimate goal of treatment for epilepsy is no seizures and no side effects with an optimal quality of life. The best quality of life is associated with a seizure-free state. Often, however, a balance between efficacy and side effects must be reached because with the... 

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