[Modern principles of epilepsy therapy]

Long regular use of antiepileptic drugs (AED) aimed at reducing frequency of seizures or stopping them completely without any significant side-effects is a main principle of epilepsy treatment. The main attention is drawn to the issues of tolerability of antiepileptic therapy and compliancy, mutual understanding between a physician and a patient as well as relatives and other significant persons. The timely detection and correction of side-effects is integral part of epilepsy treatment. Currently, the attention is focused on quality of life of patients with epilepsy including physical and mental health, education, social and psychological functioning. In some cases, the occurrence of rare seizures with minimal clinical presentation or even more frequent seizures which are not dangerous to a patient is less harmful than decreasing of quality of life due to the effect of larger AED number or dose. The balance between AED therapeutic and toxic effects is a main question in epilepsy therapy. Pharmacotherapy of epilepsy requires deep knowledge of AED: spectrum of therapeutic efficacy and extent of drug effect; safety, tolerability and side-effects, in particular severe and life-threatening ones, specifics of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, between-drug interactions and mechanisms of action; titration rate, necessity in laboratory tests during treatment, peculiarities of application of pharmacoeconomics. The present review addresses modern aspects of epilepsy therapy.