MONDAY, Jan. 27, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Doctors should avoid routinely treating a child's first unprovoked seizure with anti-epileptic drugs.
That warning comes courtesy of a new evidence-based guideline developed by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society.
The guideline appears in the Jan. 28 issue of Neurology.
It used to be common practice to treat such "unprovoked" seizures with anti-epileptic drugs. However, experts now believe the risks of daily treatment with these drugs may be more harmful to the child's health or development than additional seizures.
About 25,000 to 40,000 children in the United States have a first unprovoked seizure each year. About 1 percent of all children develop epilepsy, which is defined as two or more unprovoked seizure incidents.
Before any treatment decisions are made, it's important to assess whether it's truly a seizure and whether it's the child's first seizure.
Most children who have a first unprovoked seizure have few or no recurrences, and about 10 percent will have at least 10 seizures despite therapy, the guidelines say.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about epilepsy.
