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The anticonvulsant drugs are drugs or medicines used in the treatment of epileptic seizures. They are also referred as antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) or antiseizure drugs. The basic purpose of anticonvulsants is to suppress the rapid and excessive outbursts of neurons that start a seizure. They are prescription drugs, also increasingly being used in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
Epilepsy is a general term used for a some disorders that cause disturbances in electrical signaling in the brain. The brain is powered by roughly 80 pulses of energy per second. These pulses while move backward and forward between nerve cells produce feelings, thoughts, and memories. An epileptic seizure occurs when these energy pulses come much more rapidly, like for instance, as many as 500 per second for a short time and this is because of an electrical abnormality in the brain.
This short duration electrical surge can happen in just a small area of the brain, or it can affect the whole brain. Depending on the part of the brain that is affected, the epileptic seizure occurs like as follows:
Epilepsy is not contagious. A tendency toward epilepsy may be inherited, but it cannot be caught like a cold from another person.
Anticonvulsants represent a very large group of medications, all with a main goal of preventing seizure activity in the brain. They work in a number of ways to prevent epileptic seizure like as:
There are different anticonvulsants drugs available depending on the seizure. They are as follows:
Most drugs have dose-related side effects. Some patients tolerate bigger doses than others, but most medications cause dizziness and sleepiness at larger doses.
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