Antiepileptic drugs: the principle of taking medications you must know!

Antiepileptic drugs: the principle of taking medications you must know!.  The key to treatment with antiepileptic drugs is to persist in medication. Once you start taking the medication, you must strictly follow the doctor’s advice and insist on taking it for a long time. Only in this way can you effectively control the seizures.

Epilepsy is one of the common diseases in neurology, which has a serious impact on the patient’s body and mind. Medication is the most important and basic treatment for epilepsy. Clinical data shows that patients with epilepsy receive standardized and reasonable anti-epileptic drug treatment at the initial stage of onset, and about 70% of patients can control their epilepsy.

However, the types of anti-epileptic drugs have exploded year by year, and new drugs appear on the market almost every year. In the face of these complicated anti-epileptic drugs, there are more and more choices, but how to use these drugs to control epileptic seizures is still facing severe tests. Many patients have taken the drugs, but the effect is very poor, and even the disease is gradually getting worse. deterioration.

So what medication rules should epilepsy patients follow when taking anti-epileptic drugs? For patients and their families, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of this knowledge.

01 Understand the mechanism of action of antiepileptic drugs

The mechanism of action of anti-epileptic drugs is complicated. The same drug may have one or more mechanisms of action. Understanding the mechanism of action is the basis for proper choice of drugs and understanding of the interaction between drugs.

At present, epileptic seizures have always been thought to be caused by excessive neuronal excitement or excessive synchronized activities. In these activities, the normal balance between excitement and inhibition is lost. Based on the causes of epileptic seizures, the current anti-epileptic drugs can be divided into three main types of action mechanisms: inhibition of synaptic excitement, regulation of voltage-gated ion channels, and enhancement of synaptic inhibition.

02 Master the basic principles of drug treatment

1. Make sure to understand the treatment plan correctly

The treatment plan for patients with epilepsy is more complicated. For medication issues such as how to increase the dose, how to replace it, how to reduce the stop, and how much dose to increase, patients need to fully communicate with the doctor to ensure that the treatment plan is correctly understood and how to use it. This is the implementation of the treatment. The premise of the program.

2. Adequate use of drugs

Many patients think that anti-epileptic drugs are harmful to the body itself, such as liver and kidney function, cognition, etc., so they do not want to use large doses of drugs when taking the drug. Some patients see that the seizures are temporarily reduced or do not increase the dose. Patients of patients feel that the effect is not good and frequently replace other drugs without using sufficient amounts. In fact, these are not correct. Anti-epileptic drugs need to be used in sufficient quantities to avoid drug-refractory epilepsy.

3. Observe the rule of taking medication

All drugs have a half-life, and the number of medications depends on the half-life of the drug. The same is true for anti-epileptic drugs. There is time to maintain the blood concentration of the drug in the body. After this time, the drug will be metabolized. Therefore, some drugs are twice a day, some drugs are three times a day, etc. Patients must supplement drugs in a timely manner , Take the medicine regularly, and avoid missed or under-taken medicine.

4. Appropriate attention to adverse drug reactions

Some patients dare not take the medicine after seeing so many adverse reactions on the drug inserts. In fact, the drugs that can be marketed are relatively safe. Of course, the adverse reactions should not be overly emphasized during the medication process, and of course they cannot be ignored. If there is a problem during the medication, you need to consult a doctor in time.

5. Review after medication

Blood drug concentration inspection is an inspection for specific drugs. It is generally considered when adjusting the treatment plan. It is not an item that requires laboratory testing for every follow-up visit. In the process of using drugs, generally 3-6 months need to check the liver and kidney function and biochemical all items to determine whether the drug has adverse effects on the body.

6. The principle of reducing and stopping drugs

Reducing or stopping drugs is what every patient wants. Some patients reduce or stop the drug without authorization when the seizure is completely controlled. As a result, the disease recurs, and some even make the disease more difficult to control.
Reducing drugs generally takes 3-5 years to completely control the onset. Combining the etiology and EEG, you can consider slowing or stopping the drugs according to the doctor’s recommendation. The entire drug reduction cycle may also take 1-2 years. Drugs to be reduced or stopped need to be confirmed after follow-up visits, and they cannot be reduced or stopped blindly.

03 Two special groups need attention

1. Female patients with epilepsy

Anti-epileptic drugs can affect women’s menstrual cycle, fertility, breastfeeding and contraception; in addition, taking anti-epileptic drugs may increase the potential risk of adverse events such as miscarriage, fetal congenital malformations, fetal growth restriction, and delivery bleeding.

2. Elderly patients with epilepsy

Because the main causes are cerebrovascular accidents, brain tumors, metabolic diseases, degenerative diseases, etc., elderly patients have low tolerance to drug side effects and often take a variety of drugs to treat other diseases. Therefore, the elderly must be cautious in choosing anti-epileptic drugs. It involves tolerability, adverse reactions and pharmacokinetics, and cannot aggravate the patient’s original physical disease.

Summary

The key to treatment with antiepileptic drugs is to persist in medication. Once you start taking the medication, you must strictly follow the doctor’s advice and insist on taking it for a long time. Only in this way can you effectively control the seizures.

In addition, the inducements of seizures should be avoided as much as possible, such as drinking, fatigue, mental depression, overeating, sexual diseases, frightened fever, lack of adequate sleep, and harmful sound and light stimulation, etc., all of which prevent the recurrence of epilepsy Important measures.

(source:internet, reference only)

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