Epilepsy affects millions of people. If you (or someone you know) have epilepsy, you might be wondering if there’s a cure for this condition.
This article will explore this issue, as well as research into treatments.
Can epilepsy be cured?
The short answer is ‘no’. Epilepsy cannot be cured in the sense of ending a medical condition so that the disease is gone and doesn’t come back. Unlike diseases such as tuberculosis, for instance, there isn’t yet a specific treatment you can take to permanently stop seizures.
While epilepsy doesn’t have a cure, there are several ways of treating epilepsy available today. These treatments for epilepsy mean that many people can live seizure-free for the long term (the International League Against Epilepsy defines this as “no seizures for 12 months or three times the longest pre-treatment inter-seizure interval, with no treatment changes). The World Health Organization estimates that up to 70% of people with epilepsy could achieve seizure freedom with the right diagnosis and treatment.
What treatments for epilepsy are available?
There is a range of effective treatments for epilepsy available that help many people manage the condition. These include:
- Epilepsy medication
There are many different medicines for treating epilepsy. Anti-seizure medications (ASMs) work in different ways and may be more or less effective for different individuals. However, as a general estimate, about two out of three of people who take ASMs become seizure free when taking their medication.
If more than two appropriately chosen and tolerated medicines don’t work to control the seizures, then the following treatments may be considered.
- Diets
Certain diets are known to help manage epilepsy. In particular, the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet helps with treating epilepsy for many people.
- Epilepsy brain surgery
There are several kinds of epilepsy brain surgery available today (read this blog to learn more about types of epilepsy brain surgery). Depending on the type of epilepsy and the kind of surgery performed, some people may become seizure-free for many years after surgery.
Real more: An overview of brain surgery
- Neurostimulation
There are different types of neuromodulation devices that stimulate the brain. They can be implanted in people with focal epilepsy. These devices may help reduce the number of seizures a person has. Devices include vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive neurostimulation (RNS).
Can epilepsy be cured with new research?
Although there is not a known cure for epilepsy, ongoing research about treatments for epilepsy may result in more treatment options in future.
Since the year 2000, the American Epilepsy Society and some of its partners have been setting ‘benchmarks’ for epilepsy research and treatments. In their most recently published update (at the time of writing) in 2021, they reported that there had been significant discoveries and advances in scientific understanding of epilepsy.
Talk to your doctor about the latest developments in epilepsy research and treatments.
