Epilepsy in the practice of a family doctor

Abstract

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease manifested by repeated attacks of disturbances in motor, sensory, mental, or psychic functions resulting from excessive neural discharges in the cerebral cortex. The disease occurs in 1 % of the world's population, mostly in children and elderly people over 65 years of age. Today, there are a number of criteria for diagnostics, diagnosis, and treatment of this disease. The basic principle of epilepsy treatment is long-term regular use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in order to reduce the frequency of attacks or achieve their complete reduction in the absence of clinically significant side effects. Timely identification and correction of adverse reactions is an integral part of epilepsy treatment. The article describes the main points of support for family doctors who are faced with this disease.