People experiencing such seizures should receive immediate hospital care. Drug Treatment Drugs, surgery, a special diet, or a combination of these treatments is used to prevent seizures. Drug therapy alone can control seizures in about three-quarters of all people with epilepsy. FDA has approved 16 drugs to treat epilepsy. Seizures can usually be controlled with one drug, although, rarely, patients may have to take more than one.
Researchers have yet to pinpoint exactly how most epilepsy drugs prevent seizures.
Some epilepsy drugs appear to prevent seizures by boosting the amount or actions of certain brain compounds, called neurotransmitters, that inhibit the transfer of electrical impulses from neuron to neuron. These ions trigger the firing of neurons. Many epilepsy drugs cause unwanted side effects, such as drowsiness, confusion, clumsiness, nausea, increased appetite, and behavioral or learning problems. These side effects can often be relieved by adjusting the dosage or by switching to a different drug. To find the appropriate dose of medication, doctors usually take frequent blood samples to measure the amount of drug circulating in the patient's bloodstream.