Treatment of epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects one million people in Japan. Medical treatment is highly effective for this disorder. The antiepileptic treatment brings 70% of the patients to seizure freedom. Current guidelines recommend carbamazepine for partial (focal) seizures and valproate for generalized seizures as the first-line drug; however, indivizualized drug selection in accordance to the patients' condition is mandatory. Modern antiepileptic medications have better tolerability and less dug-to-drug interaction, and some of them are waiting to be approved in Japan. Special attention is necessary for the care of woman in child-bearing age, adolecents, and elderly persons. Advances of surgical treatment of the epilepsy brought many medically intractable patients to be seizure free. Early identification of the surgical candidate is an important task for clinicians.