• Epilepsy
• Medication
• Oral
• Nasogastric
• Intravenous

One of the many potential challenges that may confront people with any chronic condition requiring regular medication is how to manage such medication during times of illness, especially if medication cannot be taken as usual. With epilepsy, there are additional complications that make such times particularly complicated: seizures may become more frequent during concurrent illness, other medications may interfere with antiepileptic drugs or may themselves cause seizures and seizures may directly impair recovery, for example, after some surgical procedures.

The article by Banks et al1 in this issue seeks to address one key issue in this setting—what to do with regular antiepileptic drugs for people who either cannot take their usual medication in tablet form, or whose absorption is compromised for any reason. The scenario is not uncommon—with over 16 million admissions to UK hospitals in 2015/2016 (http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs, accessed 21 Nov 2016), we can expect many people with epilepsy to be admitted to hospital each year for reasons other than their epilepsy, and a significant proportion are likely to require some adaptation to their home medication regimen. However, as the authors point out, there is …