MEDICAL TREATMENT OF SEIZURES: HOW ANTICONVULSANT DRUGS WORK IN EPILEPSY
In an ideal world, we would understand the chemistry and the physiologic mechanisms causing epilepsy—how cells interact, fire, and misfire. Then we would design drugs that interact with the brain and prevent the misfiring, the seizures, without affecting the brain’s normal function. As we have previously indicated, we do not know how or why a seizure occurs. While we have many drugs that are effective in treating and preventing seizures, we do not know how they work.
Because epilepsy is a result of complex interactions in the brain, and since these interactions cannot be accurately simulated in a test tube or by a computer, animal experimentation has been necessary for us to understand epilepsy and learn how to control it. Most anticonvulsants were discovered by experimenting with substances to see if they would work in animals that had seizures caused by certain drugs. Such animal seizures, although not the same as epilepsy, have many similarities. Such research has been highly useful, and it must continue.
Although we do not know how the drugs work, we do know a lot about how they are absorbed and metabolized in the body and about their side effects. This knowledge enables us to use them properly, to calculate a dose, and to predict effects and side effects. This knowledge is called the pharmacology of the drugs; your physician will use this knowledge in treating your child and controlling her seizures.
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