(This blog was originally posted on January 24, 2012)
It is encouraging that approximately half of all of
the people with epilepsy who participate in skilled treatment programs have
excellent control of their epilepsy. However, one out of five persons with
epilepsy still suffers seizures that do not respond to antiepileptic
medications.
Neurologists diagnose “medically resistant” epilepsy when
seizures interfere with patients’ quality of life despite taking adequate doses
of two different antiepileptic drugs that are appropriate for their specific
type of epilepsy. To be certain that the epilepsy is medically resistant
neurologists must: correctly diagnose the condition; ensure that the proper choice
of antiepileptic drugs was prescribed; and that the medication was actually
taken by the patient.
Specialized neurological training is needed to
differentiate between conditions that suggest seizures, but are not. These
conditions include: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures due to emotional/psychiatric
disturbances; syncope, or fainting spells that are occasionally associated with
a few jerks of limbs/trunk; panic/anxiety episodes; and sudden sleep, as in
narcolepsy. These conditions can be explored under the “Epilepsy Information”
tag at LanceFogan.com.
Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. DINGS is his first novel.
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