KZ

I've been suffering from Gran Mal seizures for a little over 5 years now and a couple of times have been hospitalized after several seizures in a row. My poor husband.....I'm taking 200 MG of Tegretol 4 times a day. I was taking Tegretol XR, but the Dr. switched meds. I only (knock on wood) have sleep seizures except for just recently have been having absentee seizures. I think that's what they are called. They only last for a few minutes and then back to normal. I've been seizure free for a month now, but I'm wondering if I am on the right med/dosage....I have no insurance and it makes it so hard to follow up with liver funtion tests, and eeg's etc. etc. Is this seizure disorder considered epilepsy and do you think I'm on the right meds? Thanks for any help you can give me. How about acupuncture?

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

You are going through a lot. This condition is, in fact, Epilepsy. Grand Mal and Absence seizures are types of Epilepsy. Do you get seizure all over your body, or only some parts of the body ? Tegretol is known to work well in partial epilepsy, where one gets seizures involving only some parts of the body... for example, a hand seizure, with twitching of the mouth, etc. But for Generalized seizures, there are other medicines which are proven to be more effective. (Like... Sodium Valproate, Phenytoin)

I can not comment on acupuncture, as I am not trained in this discipline. But you can discuss this issue with your Neurologist who is treating you for your Epilepsy. I can only say that many studies have been done on acupuncture, but there is no strong evidence that this works.

Please get back with any more queries you might have.