anticonvulsant
Meaning of anticonvulsant: Anticonvulsants include several distinct drug classes, some of which are also prescribed for other conditions such as chronic pain or mood disorders.
Definition of anticonvulsant
An anticonvulsant is a drug used to prevent or stop seizures, abnormal bursts of electrical activity within the brain that can cause convulsions or other altered sensation, movement, or awareness. Anticonvulsants work through several different mechanisms, including stabilizing the electrical activity of nerve cells or altering the levels of specific chemical messengers within the brain.
The anticonvulsant category includes a wide range of drugs developed across different eras, from older agents such as certain barbiturates, still used in specific situations despite being largely replaced for routine seizure control, to a range of newer medications developed specifically to control seizures with generally fewer side effects.
Beyond epilepsy, some anticonvulsants are also prescribed for other conditions, including certain chronic pain syndromes and mood disorders, reflecting the fact that stabilizing abnormal nerve cell activity can be useful for purposes beyond seizure control alone.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
An anticonvulsant was prescribed to help control the patient's recurrent seizures.
Good to know
Some older anticonvulsants, including certain barbiturates, are sometimes mistakenly grouped with antipsychotic medications, though the two categories act through different mechanisms and treat different conditions.
Word origin
Where “anticonvulsant” comes from
Formed from Greek anti-, meaning against, and Latin convulsus, meaning pulled together or convulsed, from convellere, meaning to tear or pull violently.