1991 Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 154-160
The author studied on the relation of early response in antiepileptic drug therapy, evaluated at the end of the second year of it, to the long-term prognosis of seizure, in 161 cases under observation for 10 to 20 years. A significant correlation was found between the early response and prognosis. Namely, good early response tended to result in favorable prognosis, and vice versa. Particularly, in idiopathic generalized epilepsy, the long-term prognosis was excellent in the cases who had no seizure in the first 2 years. On the other hand, in temporal lobe epilepsy, the prognosis was very poor in the cases with frequent seizures more than once a month in the second year of treatment and in those with organic etiology or with neuropsychiatric complications. In non-temporal lobe epilepsy, it was found that the early response to treatment had a more clear relation to long-term prognosis, compared with other epilepsy types. The author discussed the possibility of prediction of the long-term prognosis at the early stage of the treatment and the therapy of refractory epilepsies.
