Treatment
Last checked 11/06/2008
Many people have their seizures successfully controlled with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). This is the most common way that epilepsy is treated. AEDs do not cure epilepsy. At the moment there is no cure for epilepsy. The aim of AEDs is to prevent seizures by controlling the excitability of the brain. How they do this is not totally understood. Despite this, their effectiveness in treating epilepsy has been scientifically proven.
See also list of AEDs available in the UK
- NICE guideline for epilepsy treatment (UK)
- Why do my drugs look different
- Keeping a seizure diary
- Visiting your doctor
Other types of treatment for epilepsy
Epilepsy advice and information
- What is epilepsy?
- Children
- Depression
- Disability Discrimination Act (UK)
- Driving
- Education
- Employment
- Epilepsy in later life
- Getting a diagnosis
- Health care and welfare benefits
- Inheritance
- Learning disabilities
- Me and my dad
- Memory
- Men and epilepsy
- Mobile phones and epilepsy
- Osteoporosis, osteomalacia and epilepsy
- Photosensitive epilepsy
- Relationships and epilepsy
- Safety
- Seizures
- Sports and leisure
- Stress and epilepsy
- Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP)
- Syndromes
- Travel abroad
- Treatment
- Women and epilepsy
- Young people and epilepsy
Epilepsy Helpline
- UK freephone 0808 800 5050
- International +44 113 210 8850
- Online Tuesdays 1900-2100
- Email: helpline@epilepsy.org.uk
- Txt msg: 07797 805 390 info
Latest News
Less than half of patients with active epilepsy in the United States are informed by their doctors about treatment options, according to a survey by the American Epilepsy Society and the Epilepsy Foundation.
Asking people who have partial seizures how often they have seizures does not appear to provide an accurate count, according to a report in the journal Archives of Neurology.




