Abstracts

Monotherapy has become the [quot]golden standard[quot] of epilepsy treatment by physicians; however, patients who suffer from epilepsy are rarely asked their preference for monotherapy vs. polytherapy. This study explores the thoughts and concerns of patients who are currently seizure free on either mono- or polytherapy. Clinical and demographic data was retrospectively reviewed from over 1200 medical records from patients treated at Barrow Neurological Institute, of which, 82 seizure- free patients were identified. Information was collected from patients aged 12-84 years, all whom had been seizure free for at least 3 months. Patients were then called to confirm their seizure status and were asked a series of questions pertaining to quality of life and treatment preference. Of the 82 patients, 46% were currently receiving monotherapy, at the time of the interview, of which 74% were previously treated with polytherapy. Since being off multiple AED s, 98% of these patients reported their health had improved considerably and they were experiencing few to no side effects. 54% were currently being treated with polytherapy, of which, 90% of these patients were willing to risk seizure free status by trying monotherapy. Nearly all patients reported they hoped to improve their cognitive capacity with monotherapy and that they experienced remarkable improvement in the quality of life as a whole while on monotherapy. The majority of patients seem to prefer monotherapy when their seizures are well controlled. Patients who are on polytherapy also prefer monotherapy and often willing to chance their seizure freedom in order to achieve improved quality of life and overall well-being. This study confirms that monotherapy treatment is indeed the patient s choice of treatment as often recommended by neurologists.