Early epilepsy hints at future
The research showed that epilepsy followed a pattern based on how a person responds to initial treatment. Image: Nic_Taylor/iStockphoto How well people with newly diagnosed epilepsy respond to their first drug treatment, may signal the likelihood that they will continue to have uncontrolled seizures according to University of Melbourne Chair of Neurology Professor Patrick Kwan. In a study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, Professor Kwan, who is also head of the clinical epilepsy program at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and an international authority in antiepileptic drug development, believes a pattern emerges in the early stages.“Our research shows a pattern based on how a person responds to initial treatment and specifically, to their first two courses of drug treatment,” said Dr Kwan. For the study, 1,098 people from Scotland between the ages of nine and 93 with newly diagnosed epilepsy were followed for as long as...