The Risks and Benefits of Epilepsy Treatment

The likelihood of having a second unprovoked event without any additional information is somewhere in the sort of 30 to 40 percent range based on clinical trials. If they have focal abnormalities on EEG, their epilop perform or they have either abnormalities on our exam or imaging that suggest increased risk of seizures so then we may start anti-seizure drugs. In those patients the likelihood of recurrence might be closer to 20 percent over the next couple of years but some of that depends on patient preference and patient anxiety. The last point is that if somebody has nocturnal convulsions we know from one of the trials that that might be associated with higher risk of a second event.