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Webcast Transcript
It's just that some seizures tend to happen during sleep, but they're all really treated the same.
Seizures that occur during wakefulness and sleep are both treated with anticonvulsants. And there's no real difference between the effectiveness of one and another. So we often end up choosing based on side effects.
Now, sedating effect is a very common side effect, and related to sleep, obviously. So medications such as phenobarbital and phenytoin (or Dilantin) are relatively sedating, and we tend to give them at bedtime. There are other medications like topiramate, zonisamide and lamotrigine, so that they can be alerting in some patients, and we give them earlier in the day.
ANNOUNCER: Dosing is also important factor when taking anticonvulsants for sleep-related epilepsy.
CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: For instance, you might give a higher dose of medication at bedtime so that they're covered during sleep when they usually have their seizures, and so that they don't have so much medicine in their system when they don't need it, when they're awake.
ANNOUNCER: But probably the biggest cause of sleep-related seizures are undiagnosed sleep disorders.
CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: Sleep disorders can have an impact not only on sleep-related epilepsy, but on epilepsy in general, because anything that causes a stress to the body can increase seizures.
We know that there are a lot of people out there who have undiagnosed sleep disorders. That can really be contributing to epilepsy and making it difficult or impossible to treat. So once the sleep disorder is diagnosed and treated, that's the only time the seizures can come under control.
ANNOUNCER: Over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids taken for sleep disorders can also potentially disrupt antiseizure medications, although most are safe and can be taken with anticonvulsants.
CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: The one type of medication that you'd worry about in a person with epilepsy is benzodiazepines, like Valium, which is not used so much for sleep, but occasionally it is. Medications like Restoril; these can cause dependence over time, if they're used frequently. And when the patient stops them, the withdrawal phenomenon from that dependence can actually make seizures worse.
ANNOUNCER: With the increased focus on seizure activity during sleep, physicians and patients are better able to control seizures in general and improve a patient's quality of life.
CARL BAZIL, MD, PhD: Sleep-related epilepsy actually has a better prognosis than epilepsy in general. Most people with sleep-related epilepsy can become completely controlled. So if they're still having seizures on medication, reevaluation may be warranted to find out if they need additional medication, if they have a sleep disorder that's making their seizure worse. If those are found, then they have a very good chance of having complete control of their epilepsy.
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