Precautions for epilepsy

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder, and patients need to maintain optimism in their daily lives. Patients need to pay attention to the following points in their daily lives: 1. 70%-80% of patients can achieve long-term complete remission with regular antiepileptic drug therapy. According to the type of seizures and syndrome to reasonably select antiepileptic drugs, 40%-50% of these cases can be relieved by monotherapy, while about 30% of the other patients need a combination of drugs to get good control of seizures. The remaining 20% or so of patients with drug-refractory epilepsy can also be treated with epilepsy surgery, which can provide complete remission in 15-30% of patients. With the continued development of new antiepileptic drugs and the rapid development of epilepsy surgery, more patients with epilepsy are sure to have their condition under control. Usually, the possibility of medication reduction and discontinuation exists in patients with epilepsy who have been seizure-free for more than 2 years. If the patient has structural brain abnormalities and some specific epilepsy syndromes, this should be extended to 3-5 years without seizures before considering discontinuation. However, the final decision on whether and how to discontinue the medication needs to be made under the guidance of an epilepsy specialist at a regular hospital, taking into account the cause of the epilepsy, the type of seizures, the classification of the syndrome, the response to previous treatment, and the patient’s personal situation, and carefully assessing the risk of recurrence after discontinuation. Generally speaking, it should be tapered over 6-12 months depending on the condition. The taper process should be no less than 6 months for monotherapy and only one drug at a time for polypharmacy, with each antiepileptic drug tapered for no less than 3 months. Epilepsy is a treatable disease, so don’t feel any different or worry about being looked down upon. The vast majority of our epilepsies can be controlled, or even completely cured, with reasonable treatment. But this process takes 3-5 years, or even longer. I hope that the majority of epilepsy patients do not feel discouraged and disappointed, and do not easily believe in some unrealistic advertisements – “one or two months to cure epilepsy”. The face of this disease must have confidence, find the right hospital and doctor is the key to treatment and recovery. 2, in daily life, for a variety of intracranial infections caused by epilepsy, to actively prevent the occurrence of these infections, the remission period should also pay special attention to emotional changes, do not engage in some fear of things, to avoid stimulation, to develop good habits, to avoid long-term alcohol consumption, smoking, improve health and Improve the quality of life; 3, once the onset of the disease, the consultation process must be as far as possible to let the doctor fully understand the idea, after the diagnosis, we should pay attention to follow medical advice, diligent record, regular review, before the epilepsy consultation family members should pay attention to record the seizure, such as whether the eyes gaze, the direction of gaze, whether the head is twisted and the direction of twisting, etc., to help the doctor’s typing treatment.