People who suffer from epileptic seizures are normally treated with drugs known as anticonvulsants. They are also used as mood stabilizers to treat mania in bipolar disorder. Doctors discovered that anticonvulsants suppress active neurons and calm hyperactivity in the brain in a number of ways. With the use of these drugs there is a marked improvement in mood stability among people suffering from epilepsy. But children show a lower IQ when they are administered with anticonvulsants. Anticonvulsants are often referred to as antileptic drugs or “AEDs” or antiseizure drugs or “ASDs”.

The 3 major molecular targets of anticonvulsant drugs are:

1. Voltage-gated sodium channels that play a very important biophysical role in many excitable cells such as neuron, and they help in stabilizing several neurological disorders.
2. Voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCC) are a group of voltage-gated ion channels found in excitable cells such as muscle, glial cells, and neurons.
3. Drugs that work as agonist against GABA receptors (GABAergic drugs or GABA analogues). They also initiate a rise in the amount of GABA and provide unwinding, anti-convulsive and anti-anxiety effects.

It is also observed that some anticonvulsants prevent the expected development of epilepsy in animals, but fail to drive any result when it comes to humans. No drug has shown to prevent epileptogenesis in human beings.

Approval

Usually an approval is given for a drug when it is shown to be effective when compared to an existing medicine. The term, ‘Monotherapy’ is most commonly used to describe the use of a single medication. With patients suffering from epilepsy, it is considered unethical to conduct a trial with placebo on a new drug of uncertain efficiency. This may cause unwanted side effects or dangerous drug interactions, which can be fatal.

Normally, those patients are tested whose epilepsy cannot be controlled by their present medication. Tests are conducted with a new drug and any reduction in the seizures is noted and is compared against a placebo.

Epilepsy as a disease has been recognized in the earliest medical writings and the treatment of epilepsy has also evolved through the ages. Various drug options are now available that provide relief. For partial seizures carbamazepine is used. It is one of the frontline drugs for treatment of partial seizures. Although many drugs are invented and tested the most effective combination of drugs are carbamazepine, valproate and phenytoin. It is very difficult to launch new drugs for the treatment of epilepsy because of placebo-controlled trials. In Europe the norms are not very stringent and only require the new drugs to meet the existing treatment standards thus this country approves many more drugs compared to its American counterparts where initial Monotherapy is still recommended.

For over decades it is observed that epilepsy can be successfully treated with the help of antiepileptic drugs. Antiepileptic drugs become effective only when it handles the patient belonging to a specific seizure type, by examining drug levels and checking the side effects. Satisfactory Seizure control is surely possible in patients suffering from epilepsy.

Medicines for Anti Convulsants:

• Generic Depakote
• Generic Dilantin Er
• Generic Lamictal
• Generic Lamictal Dispersible
• Generic Tegretol