Epilepsy can constrain a person's personal life, school life, academia, work life and family and social life, and will negatively impact on the individual.

An epileptic diagnosis must be correct and undeniable. The more delay there is in starting anti-epileptic treatment the more difficult it will be to control seizures.

In half of all patients seizures are controlled with the first drug that is tried and for another 20% with the second drug tried (always in monotherapy). It is very important to choose from the start the most efficient and best tolerated anti-epileptic drug.

Factors to take into account when selecting the ideal drug. 

• Type of epilepsy: it is important to identify which type of epilepsy the patient has so as to choose the most appropriate anti-epileptic drug.
• Type of epileptic seizure: need to clinically diferentiate through the use of an EEG or video EEG the seizure type.
• Seizure frequency: when seizure frequency is high it may be recommended that a drug which can be introduced rapidly is used, in some cases via parenteral.
• Type of EEG differences.
• Type of drug: the drug that will be used should have the best characteristics both in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic possible.
• Taking drugs: drug dosage is calculated according to the age and weight of the patient. The number of daily dosages will be determined by how quickly the drugs are eliminated from the system.
• Treatment compliance: drugs that only require 1 or 2 doses a day should be selected, especially in adolescents or in people where there is a higher risk of errors or forgetting to take the drugs regularly.