Epilepsy is a neurologic condition that is related to very expensive economic costs. According to WHO's 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, epilepsy is the second most burdensome neurologic disorder worldwide. It is estimated that people in the US having active epilepsy accounted for 1,2% of the total population in 2015. There are approximately 3.4 million patients with epilepsy nationwide, including 3 million adults and 470,000 children.

Seizure clusters are relatively common, happening in roughly 50% of adult patients with epilepsy followed prospectively over one year, particularly in medically refractory epilepsy. The rate of seizure clusters made up from 13 to 76% and 18 to 83% in the outpatient and inpatient setting respectively.

Figure 1: Clinical factors associated with seizure clusters.

Rescue medications can help improve the adverse outcomes of seizure cluster. However, they are generally underutilized in patients. A study showed that benzodiazepine rescue medications were regularly prescribed in adult patients with active epilepsy. Furthermore, oral lorazepam was the most common rescue medication (at 28.9%), this was followed by rectal diazepam, oral diazepam and intranasal midazolam with the same percentage of approximately 7%.

Figure 2: Benzodiazepine seizure rescue therapies 

As a result, rescue medications to prevent seizure emergencies are a prospective area of research. Libervant™ - diazepam buccal film - is a new rescue therapy. This form of diazepam can be put inside the cheek and absorbed easily. It will help to broaden the ways that a rescue medicine can be taken to stop seizures effectively.