Researchers from University of Liverpool had proposed that patients in the early stages of epilepsy might not benefit from medication. They say that it is advisable to delay the administration of medicines in epileptic patients.
Researchers of the study feel that early treatment in epilepsy do not significantly benefit the patients in having a better quality of life with epilepsy. They have conducted their study on 1,400 patients suffering from seizures, frequent or infrequent, half of whom were assigned to immediate treatment with anti-epileptic drugs while the other half had their treatment deferred till their medical practitioner said so.
The results of the trials indicated that immediate treatment had beneficial effects on short-term gains, but did not stop the seizures in the long run. Drugs like carbamazepine and valproate may reduce the seizures for a year or two. These drugs however do not guarantee total cure from seizures and once the seizures occur, their remittance is also unaffected by the previous treatment.
The study comes in the wake of the long drawn controversy regarding early treatment being beneficial or not or the people suffering from epilepsy.
The study was published in the current issue of The Lancet.
The Lancet, June 2005