Treating Epilepsy: Five Common Mistakes
Wondering why your seizures always keep coming back and why you cannot get it under control? Well, you are not the only epileptic patient who has this problem! Every epileptic patient always tries to figure out ways to get rid of their recurrent seizures. Proper medications can most of the time keep epilepsy under check. Yet, epileptic patients might commit mistakes that may favor recurrence of the seizures, mainly due to lack of knowledge. Correcting these mistakes may help in conquering this uncomfortable and life-threatening condition. So here are the five biggest reasons behind uncontrolled epilepsy!
Reason 1: Not Taking Your Medications Seriously
This is the most common reason for recurrent seizures. Missing even a single dose could stimulate another seizure. Therefore, if you miss a dose anyway, take it as soon as you remember it during the day and if night dose comes and did not take the morning one, you can take double dose at night after confirming with your doctor. Even if you forget your dose during the whole day, you can double the dose the next morning. It is important to remember that you could double the dose, but never triple it.
Reason 2: Lifestyle
This is mainly focused on your sleeping pattern. If you either do not have enough sleep or have an irregular sleeping pattern, it will provoke seizures. Hence, sticking to a regular sleeping pattern is beneficial. Also consuming alcohol could make seizures easier to happen.
Reason 3: Choosing the Wrong Medication for the Seizure Type
Epilepsy could be broadly categorized into two groups and that is "focal epilepsy" and "generalized epilepsy". In focal epilepsy, abnormal electricity is discharged from a single spot of the brain. This type can be treated with almost all antiepileptics. In generalized epilepsy, all brain cells tend to release abnormal discharges as the cause is genetic. It would help If you were cautious in getting medicine for this type as it could get worse with certain medications like sodium channel blockers such as Carbamazepine and Phenytoin.
Reason 4: Not Taking Enough Medication
Most of the patients give up their medicine too early without giving them enough time to be effective, and that is also at a lower dose. Although we start the antiepileptics at a lower dose we should gradually increase the dose to an optimum level to get the maximum effect. Having a clear idea about the side effects of the medication is useful when it comes to increasing the dose. Some of the most worrisome side effects are the psychiatric effects such as worsening of depression and anxiety. These could be caused by drugs like Levetiracetam and Keppra. Therefore, these drugs should not be prescribed to patients with a positive past medical history of psychiatric diseases.
Reason 5: Getting the Diagnosis Incorrectly
Certain heart conditions, psychological diseases, sleep disorders, and complex migraines could be misdiagnosed as seizures. Therefore, it is better to get your condition evaluated at a specialized epilepsy center and get confirmed that you are receiving the appropriate treatment.
If you cannot get your seizures under control even after addressing all the above reasons, you could be suffering from a stubborn type of epilepsy called "drug-resistant epilepsy". This should be treated with other treatment modalities like surgery and dietary modifications.
Conclusion
Even though epilepsy is a medically treatable condition, most patients suffer from recurrent seizures due to commonly committed mistakes. Correcting those could save you from this uncomfortable condition and lead you to a life of higher quality!