When should antiepileptic treatment be initiated
In general, patients who have epilepsy as defined in Question 1 should be treated with antiepileptic medication.
The seizure type or syndrome may help with this decision.
For example, absence seizures are rarely isolated and so require therapy (the first line is ethosuximide), whereas simple febrile seizures are often isolated and therapy is not indicated.
Between 20% and 70% of people with an isolated, unprovoked generalized tonic–clonic seizure will never have another seizure.
