The Rise and Fall of Bromide Therapy in Epilepsy

Abstract

We are now accustomed to seeing new effective medicines frequently becoming available and replacing older drugs. Antiepileptics are no exception. However, the rapidity with which this happens is a relatively new phenomenon. Although the rate at which newer drugs replace older ones has changed, the characteristics of this sequence have frequently remained the same. An examination of the rise and fall of bromides as antiepileptics demonstrates, in relatively slow-motion, what can occur when a useful drug is introduced for treatment of a disorder for which there had never been really effective medicines before.