Anticonvulsant therapy in a general practice population in Northern Ireland

The clinical management of 242 patients receiving anticonvulsant drugs in a general population of over 75,000 patients in Northern Ireland was reviewed.The prevalence of treated epilepsy was 3.99 per 1,000 population. There were differences in the classification of epilepsy recorded by the general practitioners and an independent epileptologist. In particular, partial epilepsy was under-recorded by the general practitioners. Comparisons between drug dose, type of epilepsy, frequency of fits and antiepileptic drug serum levels were difficult to make. There was, however, evidence of inadequate or inappropriate antiepileptic medication. There were also problems with compliance: 23 per cent of patients had deliberately stopped taking their medication, nearly half of them for over a month at a time.