Treatment of epilepsy in people with learning disabilities

NICE and SIGN Guidelines

NICE is the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). It provides guidelines on treatments and care for people using healthcare, public health, or social care services in England,Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) provides guidelines for the National Health Service in Scotland.

The NICE Guidelines (2012) and SIGN Guidelines (2005 and 2010) on the treatment of epilepsy, say that people with learning disabilities should have the same access to treatment for their epilepsy as anybody else. If they have additional treatment needs, the most appropriate health professionals should meet those needs.

Epilepsy Action has more information about the NICE and SIGN guidelines.

Why seizures are treated

The most common way seizures are treated is with epilepsy medicines. If someone is still having seizures, they might be injured or even die early. Epilepsy medicines help to stop seizures happening, but they don’t cure epilepsy.

Epilepsy Action has more information about the treatment of epilepsy.

Treating people with epilepsy and other conditions

People with learning disabilities may have other conditions. For example, they may have a number of health problems and possibly some physical disabilities. The following are some of the more common conditions.

• Feeding or swallowing problems. These make it difficult to eat a good diet or take epilepsy medicines and other medicines.
• Constipation and urine infections. These can cause more seizures.
• Communications difficulties. These can make it difficult to talk about problems, or make needs known.

Emergency treatment for seizures that last a long time

Most people have seizures that only last for a short time. These seizures usually stop by themselves, and don’t need emergency treatment.

Some people have seizures that last for longer than 30 minutes, or have one seizure that follows another without becoming conscious in between, for 30 minutes or more. This is called status epilepticus and it is a medical emergency.

If you think somebody is having an episode of status epilepticus, you should call for an ambulance.

Epilepsy Action has more information about status epilepticus.