The newer drugs generally do not work better than the older drugs. But the newer drugs are easier to use, with fewer adverse interactions when taken in combination with other drugs. The newer drugs also have expanded the availability of broad-spectrum medications. This is a "major benefit for patients with generalized epilepsies," Asconap?© wrote.

The long list of anti-epileptic drugs has also benefited epilepsy patients who have other diseases or conditions. This often allows for the use of drugs that either help or at least have no negative effects on those conditions, Asconap?© wrote.

Asconap?©'s review is among 15 articles in the November issue of Neurologic Clinics that detail latest advances in the treatment and management of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. Guest editor is Dr. Jos?© Biller, chairman of the Department of Neurology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

"Great therapeutic strides in the clinical neurosciences have been made in the past decades," Biller wrote in the preface to the November issue. "It is likely that subsequent decades will bring even greater advances in neurologically oriented therapies."

SOURCE Neurologic Clinics