Anticonvulsant medications

 4.2 Anticonvulsant medications

Anticonvulsants are a broad category of pharmacological compounds used to treat epileptic seizures. They are also sometimes referred to as antiepileptic drugs or antiseizure drugs. Since many anticonvulsants appear to operate as mood stabilizers, they are also being utilized to treat neuropathic pain, bipolar illness, and borderline personality disorder.

 Neurons during seizures fire rapidly and excessively, which is suppressed by anticonvulsants. Anticonvulsants also stop the seizure from spreading inside the brain. According to some researchers, anticonvulsants by themselves may lower a child's IQ. However, these negative consequences must be weighed against the serious risk that epileptic seizures offer to children, as well as the real chance of fatalities and catastrophic neurological aftereffects. Antiepileptic medications, or "AEDs," are a more precise name for anticonvulsants, and are frequently referred to as antiseizure medications because they simply treat symptoms and there is no evidence that they can change how epilepsy develops.