Epilepsy - Treatment

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Other medications or higher doses of the above-mentioned drugs may be used for status epilepticus patients who fail to respond to initial treatments. They include:

• Higher-dose barbiturates.
• Higher-dose intravenous benzodiazepines. In one study midazolam, the injected benzodiazepine was as effective and possibly safer than propofol, an intravenous sedative also used for uncontrolled status epilepticus.
• Propofol (Diprivan), an intravenously administered sedative. A 2003 analysis of 22 studies suggested that this drug poses an increased risk of mortality. Experts recommended that this drug not be used routinely until better trials have been performed.

All of the medications mentioned carry a risk for hypotension, an abrupt and possibly dangerous drop in blood pressure, which may require treatment.

Review Date: 11/15/2006
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital