Patient's question:
My sister's child is now 18 years old, but recently for the past half month, due to physical discomfort, they went to the hospital for a thorough examination and were diagnosed with epilepsy. Therefore, they now need to take a leave of absence from school to receive treatment. What are the best medications for epilepsy? What causes epilepsy?Doctor's answer:
Epilepsy is divided into primary and secondary epilepsy. Primary epilepsy has an unclear cause and usually occurs in early childhood. Secondary epilepsy has multiple causes, with common ones including: encephalitis, meningitis, intracranial tumors, intracranial vascular malformations, traumatic brain injury, postoperative brain conditions, and stroke sequelae. Given that you only started experiencing symptoms at the age of 18, the first step is to consult a neurology department for a follow-up to rule out secondary epilepsy. The primary focus for secondary epilepsy is identifying the underlying cause. There are several types of antiepileptic drugs, with the most commonly used being valproic acid.