• When your doctor prescribed a medication to control seizures, some instructions probably were given about how many times a day to take the medication and whether or not it should be taken with food, but probably not much else.
• When your pharmacist gave you the medication the instructions for taking it probably were listed simply as take two times a day or three times a day.

That really is not enough information for people starting a new medication for any disorder. It’s very important for people with epilepsy to have a full understanding of how and when to take medication in order to maintain the best possible seizure control.

After you leave the doctor and the pharmacy, it’s up to you to be responsible for your own treatment. Reading through this section will provide you with some skills to help you with self-management. Let’s start with a statement by former Surgeon General C.E. Koop who once said that “Drugs don’t work in people who don’t take them.”

This is the connection between what is prescribed and what you do to manage your epilepsy.

Continue to Definitions

Section Editor: Robert Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., author: Joyce Cramer
Last Reviewed: 11/15/08