Is there a "drug of choice" for Partial Seizures?

Hi Pamela, The drugs that exist now fall into two catagories.. the older & the recently developed. "The most common older drugs are: valproic acid (Depakote, Depakene, Epival), phenytoin (Dilantin, Phenytek) carbamazepine (Tegretol, Tegretol XR, Carbatrol), mysoline (Primidone) and phenobarbital." "The newer drugs are: gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), topiramate (Topamax), tiagabine (Gabatril), levetiracetam (Keppra), zonisamide (Zonegran), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) and pregabalin (Lyrica). A ninth drug, felbamate (Felbatol), is now rarely used because of potential for serious side effects." Frisium (Clobazam) also belongs to this group (not marketed in the USA). "Many studies have been done of how effective the new and old drugs are in treating seizures, and some studies have even been performed comparing the efficacy of the new drugs with the older drugs. All of the drugs have been proven to be effective in controlling seizures associated with partial epilepsy." http://www.epilepsy.com/articles/ar_1139326893.html In short, there is no 'one drug' answer.. Many different drugs can be/are used for partials, but what works for some does not work for others. Whether they do work ,or not, is up to the individual situation. Try to remember that 3/4 of those with epilepsy ARE perfectly controlled. All those meds 'do' work frequently enough that pharmaceutical companies keep producing them, so stay optimistic. hope that helps, ~sol

As Sol quite rightly said all the aforementioned drugs are effective in controlling seizures in a large number of people otherwise they would simply stop producing them. AEDs and the patients reaction to them and their effectiveness sometimes seems to me as individual as a persons fingerprints. I guess that's why to a lot of patients it seems infuriating that a doctor cannot simply say ''right you have x type of seizure therefore you should be taking this drug''. With AEDs one persons meat can be quite literally another persons poison. I've taken lots of different meds in several combinations and none of them worked then out of the blue we found the combination that seemed to do the trick. Meds do tend to drop in and out of fashion and each time there is a 'new kid on the block' that will suddenly be the drug of choice but then the status quo is soon returned as people find that this is either the drug that works or doesn't for them. Keppra was the drug that changed things for me but you will read plenty of posts telling of terrible experiences on it. The thing is that many of us live ordinary controlled lives on meds and never really think too much about it and I wish the same for you. There is plenty of choice out there meds-wise and I hope things work out for you.