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#1
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Your doctor will be able to help you weigh up the pros and cons of stopping treatment. Most doctors recommend that people have no seizures for at least two years before they think about stopping treatment.(1) However long it's been since your last seizure, you could still have another one sooner or later if you stop taking your drugs.
Some things can make it more or less likely that you will have another seizure. Your doctor may consider:
Here is a list of things that can raise or lower your chance (or risk) of having a seizure after stopping treatment.(2, 3, 4) Things that raise your risk
Some types of epilepsy are more likely to go away than others.
Stopping drugs safely You or your child should not stop taking epilepsy drugs suddenly or change the dose in any way. This could cause very serious seizures and permanently change the way your epilepsy responds to drugs.(5) The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body that advises the government on health care, says you or your child should see a specialist (usually a neurologist) if you want to stop or change your treatment.(1) When people with epilepsy are coming off their drugs, their treatment is tapered. This means their dose gets gradually smaller and smaller until it's safe to stop taking the drug completely. The daily dose is normally reduced by about a quarter every two to four weeks.(4) If you take more than one drug, you should come off them one at a time. And, before you start, the specialist should make sure you know what to do if your seizures get worse.(1) You may not be able to drive while your drugs are being cut down, or for the six months after you stop taking them. This is because your risk of having a seizure is higher during this time.(6) |
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#2
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| I wanted to follow up on this. The article states that: Quote :
__________________ Check out this chart of alternative epilepsy treatments and this page on EEG Neurofeedback |
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#3
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#4
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| Here you'll find more strict professional guidelines for discontinuing anti-epileptic drug therapy, developed by AAN: http://www.aan.com/professionals/pra...dfs/gl0007.pdf Last edited by Bernard; 03-24-2008 at 09:17 AM. Reason: enable live link |
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#5
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#6
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| It's not about being a candidate - it's about the risks and potential for being able to do so without a re-occurance of seizures.
__________________ Check out this chart of alternative epilepsy treatments and this page on EEG Neurofeedback |
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#7
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| Yeah, it's necessary to add, that there are quite authoritative opinions, that EEG itself in not so crucial indicator in this issue. Some famous neurologists say: "Cure brain, not EEG". By the way, though EEG biofeedback is dealing with EEG, actually it shapes new functional connections in the brain, stabilizes it. So it's possible, when EEG still contains some abnormalities, but all clinical manifestations of epilepsy are gone. And sometimes vise versa. So, EEG is not the very crucial indicator. Best to all! Last edited by bedolaga; 03-25-2008 at 10:59 PM. |
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#8
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| MY husband has epilepsy he had LTL in 1972 his seizures stopped but his auras didn't. He stopped takingthe phenobarbital but he stays on tranxene to control his auras. He see's the same neurologist I do once a year. Belinda
__________________ (A)abort (B)fail (C)retry (D)throw computer against wall southern and proud of it. I've had a VNS since 2000 |
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| Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
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