Epilepsy: Ethics, Outcome Variables and Clinical Scales

Approximately 70–80% of patients with epilepsy will become seizure free with presently available AEDs, and over half of these will be able to stop treatment successfully [1]. The remainder have epilepsy that is resistant to present antiepileptic medication, and less than 5% of such patients are suitable for curative epilepsy surgery. Recently launched AEDs, which are initially licensed for use in this refractory group, have had little impact, rendering fewer than 5% of this group seizure free [2,3]. Thus effective novel AEDs are still required for treatment of those with refractory epilepsy. Most of these patients have partial epilepsy, as the generalised epilepsies respond better to current AED treatment.

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