Hesperian Health Guides
Changing antiseizure medicines
HealthWiki > Epilepsy and Seizures > Chapter 4: Medicines for epilepsy and seizures > Changing antiseizure medicines
Reasons to change medicines:
- You want to be or are pregnant.
- A new or different medicine might work better or can be taken less often.
- The side effects of the medicine are troubling and not getting better.
- The medicine seems to be working less well than it had.
- The medicine costs too much.
- The medicine supply is unreliable—it is always running out.
- You have another health condition the medicine negatively affects.
Reasons not to change medicines:
- The new medicine costs too much.
- The supply of the new medicine is unreliable or is hard to find.
- You are comfortable with the medicine you are using.
- You do not want to go through the process of stopping your medicine and starting a new one.
If you change your medicine, an experienced health worker or epilepsy specialist’s advice can help you do so safely and comfortably. The dose of your old medicine may be slowly lowered. Your body may need time to get used to the new medicine.
Changing medicines for pregnancy or breastfeeding
Some antiseizure medicines are dangerous for a developing baby or newborn. If your antiseizure medicine is not safe during pregnancy or breastfeeding, talk to a health worker about changing it or adjusting your dose. For information about pregnancy and breastfeeding, see Chapter 7.
Medicines that are not safe during pregnancy or breastfeeding are marked in the medicine boxes in the following pages with these signs:
 CAUTION |
 CAUTION |
 |
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| Use carefully if you are pregnant. | Use carefully if you are breastfeeding. | Do not take if pregnant. | Do not take if breastfeeding. |
Drug-resistant epilepsy
While medicines can help control most seizures, they do not work for everyone. After trying various doses, if one antiseizure medicine is not working, your health worker will try a different medicine or combination of medicines. If a person’s seizures are not controlled after trying at least 2 medicines, their epilepsy is considered “drug resistant.”
Having drug-resistant epilepsy does not mean that your seizures cannot be controlled, it just means that antiseizure medicines may not control them. With drug-resistant epilepsy, it is more important than ever to try to control seizures with the variety of activities and practices, including special diets, avoiding seizure triggers, getting more rest, and others options discussed in Chapter 6. It is also important to make sure your seizure type is correctly identified and that your seizures are caused by epilepsy and not another health condition. For information about seizure types and causes, see Chapter 3.