The number of drugs for epilepsy has increased significantly in recent years. But the effectiveness of the treatments has not improved according to recent research.
500,000 people are said to have epilepsy in France. The crises are unpredictable, which makes the disease particularly disabling. For several decades, drug treatments have multiplied and evolved. In 2000, however, a study showed that more than a third of patients did not manage to manage and control seizures well despite the monitoring of modern treatment.
American researchers are interested in the evolution of these treatments over the last thirty years. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In twenty years, a dozen new anti-epileptic treatments have appeared on the American market.
No significant change in the efficacy of treatments
1795 people, who received anti-epileptic treatment between July 1982 and October 2012, participated in the study. Among them, 66.7% did not have a seizure for at least a year before the end of the study. For more than a third of patients with epilepsy, the seizures remain uncontrollable. But nearly 90% of them have managed to control their seizures thanks to first or second generation anti-epileptics.
Thus, newer treatments for epilepsy are no more effective than older treatments. In addition, the more patients try new treatments, the less effective they are in controlling seizures.
Last June, British researchers discovered a protein that could precisely help patients, who react badly to treatment, to cope better with drugs.
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