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Education
Epilepsy Awareness and Education
ESF is a private, non-profit organization that raises awareness and educates persons with epilepsy, families and caregivers, community organizations, businesses and school personnel about epilepsy and its impact on individuals with this medical condition. ESF offers volunteers the "H.O.P.E. Train the Mentor" program so they can provide community epilepsy education programs and support to persons affected by epilepsy. ESF is a partner in statewide "Project Access" Program, a program designed to implement innovative strategies to serve children and youth with epilepsy.
Information and Referral
Persons contact the Epilepsy Services Foundation by phone or e-mail with a request for information or a referral to an organization or neurologist in the local community. ESF will provide information that will help the person making the request.
Medication Information
Anti-epileptic medications don't cure epilepsy. The medications can successfully prevent or reduce seizures in persons with epilepsy. Until the 1990s, there were relatively few epilepsy drugs. Today, that has significantly changed. Here is a list of anti-epileptic medications:
 Ativan
Carbatrol
 Celontin
Depakene
Depakote
Diamox
Dilantin
Felbatol
Gabitril
Keppra
Klonopin
Lamictal
Mysoline
Neurontin
Sabril
Tegretol
Tegretol XR
Topamax
Tranxene
Trileptal
Zarontin
Zonegran
For more information, please consult your doctor.
First Aid Information for Convulsive Seizures
First aid for epilepsy is quite simple. It keeps the person safe until the seizure stops naturally by itself. Here are a few key steps to remember to assist the person as recommended by the Epilepsy Foundation:
- Keep calm and reassure other people who may be nearby.
- Don't hold the person down or try to stop his movements.
- Time the seizure with your watch.
- Clear the area around the person of anything hard or sharp.
- Loosen ties or anything around the neck that may make breathing difficult.
- Put something flat and soft, like a folded jacket, under the head or cup your hand and place under the head.
- Turn him or her gently onto one side. This will help keep the airway clear.
- Do not try to force the mouth open with any hard implement or with fingers. A person having a seizure CANNOT swallow his/her tongue. Efforts to hold the tongue down can injure teeth or jaw.
- Don't attempt artificial respiration except in the unlikely event that a person does not start breathing again after the seizure has stopped.
- Stay with the person until the seizure ends naturally.
- Be friendly and reassuring as consciousness returns.
- Offer to call a taxi, friend or relative to help the person get home if he/she seems confused or unable to get home alone.
First Aid for Non-Convulsive Seizures
- You don't have to do anything if a person has brief periods of staring or shaking of the limbs. If someone has the kind of seizure that produces a dazed state and automatic behavior, the best thing to do is:
- Watch the person carefully and explain to others what is happening. Often people who don't recognize this kind of behavior as a seizure think that the dazed person is drunk or on drugs.
- Speak quietly and calmly in a friendly way.
- Guide the person gently away from any danger, such as a steep flight of steps, moving traffic, or a hot stove. Don't grab hold, however, unless some immediate danger threatens. People having this kind of seizure are on "automatic pilot" so far as their movements are concerned. Instinct may make them struggle or lash out at the person who is trying to hold them.
- Stay with the person until full consciousness returns, and offer help in returning home.
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