Strategies to prevent overtreatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with epilepsy

Abstract

Overtreatment is defined here as an unnecessary and excessive drug load in the management of epilepsy leading to a suboptimal risk-to-benefit balance. Pharmacological overtreatment can often be prevented by deciding and counselling carefully about the need for antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) given the limitations of current AEDs. Although AEDs will reduce the incidence of seizures, they have no demonstrated ability to prevent epilepsy in patients at risk or to modify the course of epilepsy in patients following the first seizure. In addition, starting AEDs may not be necessary for control of epileptic seizures induced by precipitation or predisposing factors or for benign epilepsies with rare or mild seizures. Start monotherapy with the chosen first-line AED, initially at low doses titrating up to the low maintenance dose. Avoid drug loading (except for emergency treatment). If seizures continue, titrate to the limit of tolerability which will however, achieve additional seizure control in approximately 20% of patients. If, as in many patients, dosing to the limit of tolerability is not beneficial, the dose should be reduced. Switching to an average dose of another first line AED is another option to prevent overtreatment. Avoid drug overload during add-on therapy by slowly reducing the dose of the first drug in patients having adverse effects, ideally by an amount that the patient does not experience any further adverse effects, if possible, before adding another drug. If the patient does not benefit unequivocally from two-drug therapy within 3 months (and approximately 75% will not benefit), slowly transfer to monotherapy of the second drug and start with a newly chosen AED for add-on. To counteract the propensity to overmedication in chronic epilepsy is not easy. Great benefits, without loss of seizure control, are often gained by slowly reducing the overall drug load.