Herbal medicines and epilepsy: the potential for benefit and adverse effects

There is widespread and increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs), including herbal medicines (1). National surveys suggest that 42% of Americans surveyed have recently used at least one such form of therapy. People also tend to use CAM for chronic conditions that do not respond well to conventional treatments (e.g., back problems, anxiety, depression, and headaches). Further, a large proportion of CAM consumers (40%) do not disclose their use of CAMs to their physicians, and it was estimated that 15 million American adults took prescription medications concurrently with herbal medications and/or high-dose vitamins in 1997. People with epilepsy are no exception in this regard: 24% of patients in one tertiary care epilepsy clinic reported using CAMs (2). Users of CAMs were found with all levels of education, ranging from incomplete high school education to the postgraduate level.

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