abscence seizures and meds

"The good news is that treatments are available that can successfully prevent seizures for most people with epilepsy. Epilepsy: A disorder characterized by transient but recurrent disturbances of brain function that may or may not be associated with impairment or loss of consciousness and abnormal movements or behavior." http://www.epilepsy.com/101/101_treatment.html This opinion is from a site created by epilepsy specialists. Bottom line, unless you want the seizures to increase or get worse, the person needs to be on medication asap. CAE info: http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_childhoodabsence.html hope that helps.. ~sol

Hi, I am new to the site and just put a forum question about severe mood changes. In my comments I had put that my daughter was in the CAE study and we just pulled her out in November. The people at Childrens Hospital in Columbus, OH were SO nice but I'm not sure if I would have put her in it if I could do over. If it is the same study, it is a double-blind study so you will probably never know, nor will your doctor, what medication your child is on. This is very frustrating if you start seeing any major side effects, as is what happened with my daughter. Everything went great at first, but throughtout the months, her personality REALLY changed which is why we pulled her out of the study. Unforunately, because we don't know what med she was on in the study, they just kind of picked one to put her on in open-label and we are still seeing problems. Maybe it's the same drug, maybe not. The nice thing about the study is all medication and work-up is free, however, it is unnerving not knowing what medication you are giving to your child everyday. Another thing that I found, is that when you go back each time and they draw blood, they are only checking kidney and liver functions. They do not actually check the levels to see if they are building up too much. They can't check that because then they would know what medication they are on. I would just really read all info, ask TONS of questions and proceed with caution.