| Prognosis
Category |
Description |
Examples |
| Spontaneous Long Term Remission |
Patients in this category can eventually achieve seizure freedom without the use of antiepileptic drugs. Although not strictly required to achieve remission, practitioners often prescribe medication in this condition, since each seizure can be harmful and even life threatening. If these patients do receive treatment before the onset of “spontaneous” remission, the first or second monotherapy (single drug treatment) is frequently effective with only moderate doses of medication. Further, seizure freedom persists after the medication is discontinued, indicating true remission. |
Benign Neonatal Seizures, Benign Rolandic Epilepsy, Childhood Absence Epilepsy |
| Medical Suppression of Seizures |
With the continued use of antiepileptic drug therapy, patients in this category can achieve seizure freedom; however, this outcome should not be confused with true remission because discontinuing treatment will result in a relapse. Practitioners recognize that the epileptogenic process still persists and their attention is restricted to treating the symptoms. Patients in this category may not respond to monotherapy, and instead may need polytherapy, which consists of a selection of several drugs determined clinically on an individual patient basis. |
Many Location-Related Epilepsies, Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy |
| Medically Intractable Epilepsy |
Antiepileptic drugs have limited efficacy for patients in this category. In the best case scenario, these drugs can help patients in this category by reducing the intensity or frequency of seizures, while others experience varying degrees of activity despite therapy. Consequently, many patients in this category suffer from numerous, severely debilitating seizures. |
Cryptogenic (Unknown Origin) Location-Related Epilepsies, Cortical Dysplasia, Gross Structural Brain Lesions, Progressive Myoclonic Epilepsies, West Syndrome |
