Nervous system drugs epilepsy

More important than numerical data are the clinical implications of differences between the two countries. The largest differences have narrowed since the previous study, but important categories in which the U.S. still lagged behind Britain in December 1976 included cardiovascular drugs, peptic ulcer treatment, and central nervous system drugs—including therapies for depression, epilepsy, and migraine. 

Isolated seizures that are not epilepsy can be caused by stroke, central nervous system trauma, central nervous system infections, metabolic disturbances (e.g., hyponatremia and hypoglycemia), and hypoxia. If these underlying causes of seizures are not corrected, they may lead to the development of recurrent seizures I or epilepsy. Medications can also cause seizures. Some drugs that are commonly associated with seizures include tramadol, bupropion, theophylline, some antidepressants, some antipsy-chotics, amphetamines, cocaine, imipenem, lithium, excessive doses of penicillins or cephalosporins, and sympathomimetics or stimulants. 

Barbiturates are among the drugs classified as central nervous system (CNS) depressants. These drugs depress or slow down the activity of nerves that control emotions and bodily functions such as breathing. Barbiturates are prescribed as a sedative that calms the patient or as a hypnotic that helps a person sleep. Other uses include epilepsy treatment and anesthesia before surgery. 

Primary epilepsy When no specific anatomic cause for the seizure, such as trauma or neoplasm, is evident the syndrome is called idiopathic or primary epilepsy. These seizures may be produced by an inherited abnormality in the central nervous system (CNS). Patients are treated chronically with antiepileptic drugs, often for life. 

Nervous system The neurocognitive effects of antiepileptic drugs, in the developing brains of unborn children when they are given to mothers with epilepsy and in children with epilepsy, have been reviewed [48 49 ]. 

Nervous system In a review of several clinical studies of the use of topiramate in different indications (alcohol dependence, essential tremor, binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, migraine, and epilepsy), the percentages of drug-induced nervous system adverse reactions, in particular paresthesia, differed greatly between the different disorders dropouts due to adverse events varied from 2% in those with bulimia nervosa to 29% in those with migraine [289 ]. 

Clinicians have only recently realized that chronic adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs, mainly those involving central nervous system, may be more disabling to the patient than the seizures themselves. Up to a few years ago, the historical belief that seizure frequency is the major determinant of health-related quality of life and that adverse reactions are merely a secondary end-point was the prevalent opinion. It has been shown that changes in seizure rate among patients with drug-resistant epilepsy are only modestly correlated with quality of life, while adverse reactions and depression are critical determinants of subjective health status [I "]. 

Nervous system An infant with drug-resistant epilepsy associated with bilateral Sturge-Weber syndrome became comatose after taking high-dose phenobarbital for a few months and regained consciousness as the serum phenobarbital concentration fell to below 40 [ig/ml. The authors suggested that patients with severe cerebrovascular diseases are more susceptible to the sedative effects of phenobarbital [232 ]. 

Nervous system An 11-year-old girl with typical childhood absence epilepsy was reported to have an EEG conversion from 3 Hz spike-and-wave to right centrotemporal and centroparietal spikes after starting ethosuximide. The authors suggested that this may have been a drug-induced conversion however, whetiier this is possible remains controversial [65 ]. 

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