Reasons for uncontrolled seizures in adults; the impact of pseudointractability

We investigated the various possible reasons for uncontrolled seizures in patients 18 years of age and older to determine the impact of pseudointractability. We also tried to investigate the various forms of pseudointractability.

In this cross-sectional study, all patients 18 years of age and older with their first seizure occurring at least six months prior to the referral date, taking at least one antiepileptic drug (AED) and having at least one seizure in the past three months were studied. The presumed reason for uncontrolled seizures was arbitrarily considered to be one of these five categories: Poor compliance; Wrong medication (misclassification); Wrong dose of the correct medication; Diagnosis other than epilepsy; and finally, Medically-refractory epilepsy. Statistical analyses were performed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, and a P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

350 patients were referred to us due to uncontrolled seizures. One hundred ninety-one (55%) were male and 159 (45%) were female. Twelve percent of the patients had diagnoses other than epilepsy, 40% had indeed medically-refractory epilepsy; 29% were taking the wrong AEDs (misclassified epilepsy); 18% were taking suboptimal doses of AEDs; and 1% had poor drug compliance. The most common reason for uncontrolled seizures among patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy was taking the wrong AED. However, among patients with focal epilepsy, true medically-refractory epilepsy was the most common reason.

Uncontrolled seizures are a commonly encountered problem, especially at epilepsy clinics and one should consider all possible reasons for these uncontrolled seizures. The mainstay for making a correct diagnosis is a detailed clinical history.