Abstract
Epilepsies are the most common serious chronic neurological diseases. Pharmacotherapy is still the main treatment method for most patients.
There is now a much larger range of drugs with different mechanisms of action. Neurologists choose the appropriate antiepileptic drug (AED) or combination of antiepileptic drugs for a individual patient.
In doing so, they take into account not only the type of epileptic seizures and epilepsy, but also the profile of adverse side effects, including chronic toxicity, and the individual patient profile (age, gender, cognition, body weight, present co-morbidity, especially psychiatric, concomitant treatment, lifestyle and job status). Pharmacotherapy of epilepsy is successful in 50% of patients after initiation of treatment with AED of the first choice.
In the event of a failure, the neurologist will propose an effective testing plan for the other AEDs. The article is a brief overview of current views on epilepsy treatment through the eyes of a neurologist/epileptologist who treats adolescents and adult patients.