How Do Benzodiazepines Suppress Seizure Activity?

Benzodiazepines such as diazepam, lorazepam, clobazam, clorazepate, and nitrazepam are excessively helpful in subsidizing or suppressing seizure activity. Benzodiazepines are also useful for patients with developmental disabilities. These Benzodiazepine drugs have limitation to the action and the properties they contain. The tendency of the medicine to cause cognitive impairment, addiction, sedation, and tolerance, limit its utility as an anti-epileptic therapy.

Of all the known available formats of benzodiazepines, clonazepam is a common drug offered to the patient by a neurologist for treating long-term seizure/epilepsy. The drug is available in tablet format. Diazepam and lorazepam are available as intravenous, which helps in providing treatment for prolonged seizures such as status epilepticus. Diazepam is also available in gel form. Clinicians will insert the gel into rectum.

The drugs are available in different dosage levels and are helpful including seizure activities in both children and adults. However, the doctor decides the dosage level and makes the adjustments based on the weight and age of the patient.

Benzodiazepines act as minor tranquilizers. Due to this, it is possible for the drug to prevent or suppress a seizure attack. Most of the drugs available are in the form of prolonged released format to ensure that it slows down the abnormality occurring in the brain, which is leading to the seizure attack.

The use of benzodiazepines is helpful in treating myoclonic seizures, absence seizures, infantile spasms, and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The occurrence of the latter two is uncommon. However, they may be one or two cases in which the individual suffers from these symptoms.

Lorazepam and diazepam in the form of intravenous have a vast impact in treating status epilepticus or prolonged seizures. Of the two, diazepam is widely offered to patients suffering from short-term seizure activities, repeated, or prolonged seizures. Neurologists also provide the drug for those who are already consuming antiseizure medications as part of their long-term treatment.

Speaking about benzodiazepines, they are not the first line of treatment for epilepsy. Nonetheless, clonazepam is quite helpful for many people. However, a few of them do not respond well in the long run. Using diazepam occasionally will prove useful in treating seizures effectively. Treating an individual with the help of rectal diazepam during the prolonged seizure attack helps in suppressing the activity successfully.

Some of the side effects produced by benzodiazepines include loss of appetite, drowsiness, behavior changes, and loss of muscle coordination. In addition to these, the Food and Drug Administration also issued a warning about the risk of production of suicidal thoughts in the patient when continued for an extended period. Due to this, doctors often change the treatment depending on the response shown by the patient. It is similarly vital for the patient to talk about their feelings with the doctors who are consuming clonazepam.

As there is no specific reason behind the instant occurrence of seizure activity in an individual, it will take some time for the doctor as well as the patient to adjust and find the right combination that controls the electrical and chemical impulses produced in the brain. Managing the combination and schedule will prevent further seizure activity apart from reducing the side effects. After finding out the exact combination and the reason for the occurrence of seizure activity, it is vital for the patient to follow the program as prescribed by the neurologist. Frequent consultations will be of immense help to ensure that there is no presence of immediate side effects too.