Epilepsy Patients Not Taking Medications Stone Mountain GA

Epilepsy (also known as seizure disorder) is a neurological condition with symptoms which vary from a momentary lapse of attention to convulsions. What it is has been understood. What causes it is often not understood. Epilepsy was one of the first brain disorders to be described and its history goes back some 3000 years when it was first mentioned in Babylon. The word epilepsy is derived from the Greek word for "attack." It was once thought that people who had epilepsy were being visited by demons or gods. However in 400 B.C., the early physician Hippocrates suggested that epilepsy was a disorder of the brain. A seizure disorder includes any condition in which there are repeated episodes of seizures of any type. Damage to brain cells can disrupt the normally smooth-running pattern of electrical activity in the brain by causing an electrical overload. This can create a seizure, which causes a sudden change in the individual's consciousness and/or change in motor activity.

Treatment of epilepsy is aimed at controlling seizures as well as treating their underlying cause if it is known. Drugs in a category called oral anticonvulsants prevent or minimize the number of future seizures. The way an individual responds to the medication is completely individual, and the medication used and dosage may have to be adjusted repeatedly.

Insurance records from three state Medicaid programs over eight and a half years were reviewed by researchers in a recent study published in Neurology. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether people with epilepsy who failed to take their seizure medication regularly had higher rates of mortality. The study included 33,658 people with epilepsy who filled at least two epilepsy drug prescriptions. The results revealed that people who took their epilepsy medication less than 80 percent of the time over the course of three months were three times more likely to die compared to the people who took their medication regularly. The study also found that hospital visits increased by 86 percent and emergency room visits increased by 50 percent when the people did not take their medication regularly. Car accidents and bone breaks were also more common during periods when the epilepsy medications were not taken regularly. These results are alarming since some studies have found that approximately 30 to 50 percent of people with epilepsy do not take their medication regularly. It is suggested that physicians recognize and treat issues related to patients failing to take their epilepsy medication since nonadherence to antiepileptic drugs can have serious or fatal consequences for patients with epilepsy.¹

¹ Faught E, Duh MS, Weiner JR, et al. Nonadherence to antiepileptic drugs and increased mortality. Findings from the RANSOM Study. Neurology. Jun2008.